A single-nucleus transcriptomic atlas of the adult Aedes aegypti mosquito
Olivia V. Goldman, Alexandra E. DeFoe, Yanyan Qi, Yaoyu Jiao, Shih‐Che Weng, Brittney Wick, Leah Houri-Zeevi, Priyanka Lakhiani, Takeshi Morita, Jacopo Razzauti, Adriana Rosas-Villegas, Yael N. Tsitohay, Madison M. Walker, Ben R. Hopkins, Joshua X.D. Ang, Igor Antoshechkin, Yu Cai, Fangying Chen, Yen-Chung Chen, Julien Devilliers, Linhan Dong, Roberto Feuda, Paolo Gabrieli, Artyom Kopp, Hyeogsun Kwon, Hsing-Han Li, Tzu‐Chiao Lu, Thalita Lucio, João T. Marques, Marcus F. Oliveira, Roenick Proveti Olmo, Umberto Palatini, Zeaan M. Pithawala, Julien Pompon, Yan Reis, João Marcos Ranyere da Silva Rodrigues, Ryan C. Smith, Maximilian Haeussler, Omar S. Akbari, Laura B. Duvall, Helen White-Cooper, Trevor R. Sorrells, Roshan Sharma, Hongjie Li, Leslie B. Vosshall, Nadav Shai
Abstract
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.