Cellular evolution of the hypothalamic preoptic area of behaviorally divergent deer mice

Genetic variation is known to contribute to the variation of animal social behavior, but the molecular mechanisms that lead to behavioral differences are still not fully understood. Here, we investigate the cellular evolution of the hypothalamic medial preoptic area (MPOA), a brain region that plays a critical role in social behavior, across two sister species of deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus and P. polionotus) with divergent social systems. These two species exhibit large differences in mating and parental care behavior across species and sex. Using single-nucleus RNA-sequencing, we build a molecular atlas of the MPOA for males and females of both Peromyscus species. Nuclei from MPOA of males and females of P. maniculatus and P. polionotus were isolated and sequenced using 10x Genomics 3' V3. Each replicate contains a male and female of each species (i.e. 4 samples) all_nuclei.seurat.rds = Seurat object of counts from all nuclei Pman.gene_name.txt = Mapping from Pman gene ID to common gene name Ppol.gene_name.txt = Mapping from Ppol gene ID to common gene name