Kavli Affiliate: Leslie B. Vosshall
| Authors: Olivia V. Goldman, Alexandra E. DeFoe, Yanyan Qi, Yaoyu Jiao, Shih-Che Weng, Leah Houri-Zeevi, Priyanka Lakhiani, Takeshi Morita, Jacopo Razzauti, Adriana Rosas-Villegas, Yael N. Tsitohay, Madison M. Walker, Ben R. Hopkins, Mosquito Cell Atlas Consortium, Omar S. Akbari, Laura B. Duvall, Helen White-Cooper, Trevor R. Sorrells, Roshan Sharma, Hongjie Li, Leslie B. Vosshall and Nadav Shai
| Summary:
The female 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 to 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 in the brain, rather than neurons, undergo the most extensive transcriptional changes following blood feeding. Our findings provide insights into the cellular basis of mosquito behavior and sexual dimorphism. The Aedes aegypti Mosquito Cell Atlas aims to serve as a resource for the vector biology community, enabling systematic investigation of cell type-specific expression across all mosquito tissues. Competing Interest Statement Omar S. Akbari is a founder of Agragene, Inc. and Synvect, Inc., with equity interest. The terms of this arrangement have been reviewed and approved by the University of California, San Diego in accordance with its conflict of interest policies.