TY - JOUR
T1 - Neuroanatomical basis of sexual dimorphism in the mosquito brain
AU - Li, Jing
AU - Merchant, Austin
AU - Zhou, Suyue
AU - Wang, Tao
AU - Zhou, Xuguo
AU - Zhou, Chuan
N1 - We are grateful to Zhen Zou and Feng Cui for providing Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus colonies. We thank Zhengzhong Huang for imaging mosquitoes, Zhilei Zhao for sharing the protocol and suggestions about the dissection and staining. We also thank Haonan Zhou, Kai Shi, Mao Wang, Siping Li and Yuting Zhang for their assistance in maintaining mosquitoes. Special thank goes to Chao Ning for sharing insights in data analysis, and Jue Xie and Yucheng Sun for commenting on an earlier draft. This work was supported by the State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest, Insects, and Rodents, IOZ, CAS to CZ and XGZ (Nos. Y952824103 and Y929731103 ). AM’s summer research in China (2018 and 2019, respectively) was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China to XGZ (No. 31828009 ), and a Confucius Institute Student Study in China Travel Grant, University of Kentucky , to AM. Contributions by XGZ and AM were supported in part by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture , Hatch projects KY008071 and KY008090 , to XGZ.
PY - 2022/11/18
Y1 - 2022/11/18
N2 - Female but not male mosquitoes are vectors for multiple deadly human diseases including malaria, dengue, yellow fever, and West Nile virus. However, the underlying neural substrates of sexually dimorphic behaviors remain largely unknown in mosquitoes. In this study, we found striking sexual dimorphism in brain regions in two major disease vectors, Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus, through voxel-wise comparison of the whole brain. Female-enlarged regions include those associated with chemosensation and vision, while male-enlarged regions are linked to hearing and memory. However, some brain regions associated with vision and memory are sexually dimorphic in Ae. aegypti but not Cx. quinquefasciatus. As the first global voxel-based comparative neuroanatomical analysis of mosquito brains between sexes, this study not only sheds light on the neural substrates underlying sex-specific behaviors, but also identifies regions of interest for future research to disrupt female-specific behaviors critical to disease transmission.
AB - Female but not male mosquitoes are vectors for multiple deadly human diseases including malaria, dengue, yellow fever, and West Nile virus. However, the underlying neural substrates of sexually dimorphic behaviors remain largely unknown in mosquitoes. In this study, we found striking sexual dimorphism in brain regions in two major disease vectors, Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus, through voxel-wise comparison of the whole brain. Female-enlarged regions include those associated with chemosensation and vision, while male-enlarged regions are linked to hearing and memory. However, some brain regions associated with vision and memory are sexually dimorphic in Ae. aegypti but not Cx. quinquefasciatus. As the first global voxel-based comparative neuroanatomical analysis of mosquito brains between sexes, this study not only sheds light on the neural substrates underlying sex-specific behaviors, but also identifies regions of interest for future research to disrupt female-specific behaviors critical to disease transmission.
KW - Animals
KW - Behavioral neuroscience
KW - Ethology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85139870146&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85139870146&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.isci.2022.105255
DO - 10.1016/j.isci.2022.105255
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85139870146
SN - 2589-0042
VL - 25
JO - iScience
JF - iScience
IS - 11
M1 - 105255
ER -