Odorant receptor coexpression and multi-expression in the dengue mosquito
16 affiliations
- 1Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA. [email protected]
- 2EDEN Medical Genomics, Jerusalem, Israel. [email protected]
- 3Leumit Health Services, Tel-Aviv, Israel. [email protected]
- 4Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA. [email protected]
- 5Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
- 6Biologics Process Research and Development, Merck & Co, Rahway, NJ, USA
- 7Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, France
- 8Medical and Scientific Affairs, Illumina Inc, San Diego, CA, USA
- 9Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- 10Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
- 11State Key Laboratory of Animal Biodiversity and Conservation and Integrated Pest Management, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- 12Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
- 13Department of Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA
- 14Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA. [email protected]
- 15Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA. [email protected]
- 16Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA. [email protected]
Abstract
Drosophila olfactory sensory neurons tend to express a single ligand-specific receptor, following a one-receptor-per-neuron rule expected to apply broadly across insects. Recent work challenges this view by showing that some neurons in the mosquito Aedes aegypti coexpress multiple receptors. However, the full extent and nature of coexpression in Ae. aegypti remains unclear. We sequenced the transcriptomes of 46,000 female antennal neurons to resolve all olfactory neuron subtypes and identify expressed receptors. Half of all subtypes coexpress multiple receptors. However, coexpression occurs almost exclusively among receptors from the same family; cross-family coexpression of odorant receptors with ionotropic receptors is rare. We also document a phenomenon called multi-expression, wherein one receptor is expressed in multiple neuron subtypes, often alongside distant paralogs. Drosophila provides rare examples of both coexpression and multi-expression, suggesting that Drosophila and Aedes are not fundamentally different, but instead located at different positions along a continuum likely to encompass diverse insects. Dengue mosquito olfactory neurons are known to show complex patterns of receptor expression, but the details of this complexity remain unclear. Here, the authors build a comprehensive molecular atlas of antennal neurons, showing that half express multiple receptors and that some receptors are expressed in multiple neurons.
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BibTeX
@article{adavi2026odorant,
title = {{Odorant receptor coexpression and multi-expression in the dengue mosquito}},
author = {Elisha David Adavi and Vitor L. dos Anjos and Sumer M. Kotb and Melanie Edwards and Hillery C. Metz and David Tian and Zhilei Zhao and Jessica L. Zung and Noah H. Rose and Carolyn S. McBride},
journal = {Nature Communications},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.1038/s41467-026-76682-2},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-76682-2},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Odorant receptor coexpression and multi-expression in the dengue mosquito
AU - Elisha David Adavi
AU - Vitor L. dos Anjos
AU - Sumer M. Kotb
AU - Melanie Edwards
AU - Hillery C. Metz
AU - David Tian
AU - Zhilei Zhao
AU - Jessica L. Zung
AU - Noah H. Rose
AU - Carolyn S. McBride
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/15
JO - Nature Communications
DO - 10.1038/s41467-026-76682-2
UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-76682-2
AB - Drosophila olfactory sensory neurons tend to express a single ligand-specific receptor, following a one-receptor-per-neuron rule expected to apply broadly across insects. Recent work challenges this view by showing that some neurons in the mosquito Aedes aegypti coexpress multiple receptors. However, the full extent and nature of coexpression in Ae. aegypti remains unclear. We sequenced the transcriptomes of 46,000 female antennal neurons to resolve all olfactory neuron subtypes and identify expressed receptors. Half of all subtypes coexpress multiple receptors. However, coexpression occurs almost exclusively among receptors from the same family; cross-family coexpression of odorant receptors with ionotropic receptors is rare. We also document a phenomenon called multi-expression, wherein one receptor is expressed in multiple neuron subtypes, often alongside distant paralogs. Drosophila provides rare examples of both coexpression and multi-expression, suggesting that Drosophila and Aedes are not fundamentally different, but instead located at different positions along a continuum likely to encompass diverse insects. Dengue mosquito olfactory neurons are known to show complex patterns of receptor expression, but the details of this complexity remain unclear. Here, the authors build a comprehensive molecular atlas of antennal neurons, showing that half express multiple receptors and that some receptors are expressed in multiple neurons.
SN - 2041-1723
ER -