The brain of the female Anopheles gambiae mosquito at spatial and single-cell resolution

Blood feeding in Anopheles mosquitoes is at the root of all malaria infections in humans and is supported by a range of physiological and behavioral adaptations. However, the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying mosquito behavior are almost uncharted. Since behavior is orchestrated at the level of the central nervous system, we surveyed the cellular diversity in the female Anopheles gambiae brain and compared it to other insect species. We further leveraged spatially-resolved transcriptomics to understand how this cellular diversity is organized in the mosquito head, with a 10 µm resolution. Finally, we described transcriptional changes associated with mosquito life history events (mating, blood-feeding, Plasmodium falciparum infection, age), with single brain and single-cell RNA sequencing data. We did not identify expansion of specific cell populations, but a modulation of neurotransmission in the mated mosquitoes, and a metabolic and immune response associated with glia, Kenyon cells and immune cells after a bloodmeal, and detected signatures of aging in the brain. We did not find an effect of Plasmodium falciparum infection. Our atlas provides the first map of the malaria mosquito brain, a resource which will empower the study of non-model insect neurobiology, the neural basis of vector behavior and mechanisms underlying malaria transmission.