Neuroanatomical basis of sexual dimorphism in the mosquito brain

Jing Li; Austin Merchant; Suyue Zhou; Tao Wang; Xuguo Zhou; Chuan Zhou

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.105255

Neuroanatomical basis of sexual dimorphism in the mosquito brain

Jing Li
, Austin Merchant
, Suyue Zhou
, Tao Wang
, Xuguo Zhou
, Chuan Zhou

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

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.

Original language	English
Article number	105255
Journal	iScience
Volume	25
Issue number	11
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.105255
State	Published - Nov 18 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s)

Funding

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.

Funders	Funder number
Confucius Institute Headquarters of China
National Institute of Food and Agriculture	KY008090, KY008071
University of Kentucky
National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)	31828009
State Key Laboratory of Integrated Pest Management	Y952824103, Y929731103

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

Keywords

Animals
Behavioral neuroscience
Ethology

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General

Access to Document

10.1016/j.isci.2022.105255

Cite this

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title = "Neuroanatomical basis of sexual dimorphism in the mosquito brain",

abstract = "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.",

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AU - Merchant, Austin

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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.

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Neuroanatomical basis of sexual dimorphism in the mosquito brain

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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