Tina Lasisi

Many primates are sexually dichromatic — males and females are different colors. I wanted to know how that trait is built genetically, and how it evolved across the primate family tree. I started the week not knowing most of the methods it would need, and finished with a reproducible pipeline that answered the question — because each step forced me to build the next. First, I assembled a curated map of hundreds of genes involved in pigmentation, pulling several public databases into one searchable resource where every entry traces back to its source, plus an interactive tool to explore it. Then, because color sex-differences also depend on sex hormones, I extended the map to include hormone genes — turning a gene list into a testable system. Finally, I compared this gene set across 117 primate genomes on a 238-species family tree to ask where evolution acted. What I found: sexual dichromatism evolved ~15 separate times, is controlled by many genes rather than one master switch, and is lost about 9× more easily than it's gained — a surprisingly disposable trait. The reproducible pipeline is the real deliverable.

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