Résumé
The female Aedes aegypti mosquito’s remarkable ability to hunt humans and transmit pathogens relies on her unique biology. Here, we present the Aedes aegypti Mosquito Cell Atlas, a comprehensive single-nucleus RNA sequencing dataset of more than 367,000 nuclei from 19 dissected tissues of adult female and male Aedes aegypti, providing cellular-level resolution of mosquito biology. We identify novel cell types and expand our understanding of sensory neuron organization of chemoreceptors across all sensory tissues. Our analysis uncovers male-specific cells and sexually dimorphic gene expression in the antenna and brain. In female mosquitoes, we find that glial cells, rather than neurons, undergo the most extensive transcriptional changes in the brain following blood feeding. Our findings provide insights into the cellular basis of mosquito behavior and sexual dimorphism. The Aedes aegypti Mosquito Cell Atlas resource enables systematic investigation of cell-type-specific expression across all mosquito tissues.
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•snRNA-seq atlas (>367,000 nuclei) from 19 male and female Aedes aegypti mosquito tissues•Or82 and ppk317 cells show sex-specific expression in the antenna•Appendage sensory neurons co-express genes from multiple chemosensory receptor families•Glia, not neurons, show the most dramatic transcriptional changes in the brain after blood feeding
A comprehensive single-nucleus RNA-seq atlas of >367,000 nuclei from male and female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes reveals sexual dimorphism in sensory systems and brain cell types and widespread co-expression of chemoreceptors across sensory modalities in peripheral sensory neurons and identifies brain glia as key cell types involved in post-blood-feeding transcriptional changes.