Sexual dimorphism in the complete Drosophila male central nervous system connectome.

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Cell. 2026 Sep 03;189(18):5504-5526.e15. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2026.08.015

Sexual dimorphism in the complete Drosophila male central nervous system connectome. Rubin LabHess LabScheffer LabReiser LabRomani LabSaalfeld LabJayaraman LabCard LabFlyEMScientific Computing Project Pipeline Support

Berg S, Beckett IR, Costa M, Schlegel P, Januszewski M, Marin EC, Nern A, Preibisch S, Qiu W, Takemura S, Fragniere AM, Champion AS, Adjavon D, Cook M, Gkantia M, Hayworth KJ, Huang GB, Katz WT, Kämpf F, Lu Z, Ordish C, Paterson T, Stürner T, Trautman ET, Whittle CR, Burnett LE, Hoeller J, Li F, Loesche F, Morris BJ, Pietzsch T, Pleijzier MW, Silva V, Yin Y, Ali I, Badalamente G, Bates AS, Beresford RJ, Bogovic J, Brooks P, Cachero S, Canino BS, Chaisrisawatsuk B, Clements J, Crowe A, Vicente I, Dempsey G, Donà E, Santos M, Dreher M, Dunne CR, Eichler K, Finley-May S, Flynn MA, Hameed I, Hopkins GP, Hubbard PM, Kiassat L, Kovalyak J, Lauchie SA, Leonard M, Lohff A, Longden KD, Maldonado CA, Moitra I, Moon SS, Mooney C, Munnelly EJ, Okeoma N, Olbris DJ, Pai A, Patel B, Phillips EM, Plaza SM, Richards A, Salinas J, Roberts RJ, Rogers EM, Scott AL, Scuderi LA, Seenivasan P, Capdevila L, Smith C, Svirskas R, Takemura S, Tastekin I, Thomson A, Umayam L, Walsh JJ, Whittome H, Xu CS, Yakal EA, Yang T, Zhao A, George R, Jain V, Jayaraman V, Korff W, Meissner GW, Romani S, Funke J, Knecht C, Saalfeld S, Scheffer LK, Waddell S, Card GM, Ribeiro C, Reiser MB, Hess HF, Rubin GM, Jefferis GS

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Abstract

Sex differences in behavior exist across all animals, typically under strong genetic regulation. In Drosophila, fruitless/doublesex transcription factors identify dimorphic neurons, but their organization into functional circuits remains unclear. We present the connectome of the entire Drosophila male central nervous system. This contains 166,700 neurons spanning the brain and nerve cord, fully proofread and annotated, including fruitless/doublesex expression and 11,710 neuron types. We provide the first comprehensive comparison between male and female brain connectomes to synaptic resolution, finding 8,069 isomorphic, 138 dimorphic, 289 male-specific, and 71 female-specific types. This resource enables analysis of full sensory-to-motor circuits underlying complex behaviors and the impact of dimorphic elements. Sex-specific/dimorphic neurons are concentrated in higher brain centers, while the sensory and motor periphery is largely isomorphic. Within higher centers, male-specific connections are organized into hotspots defined by male-specific neurons or arbors. Dimorphic neurons reroute information across sexes.

PMID: 42691995 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Preprint: https://www.doi.org/10.1101/2025.10.09.680999

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Sexual dimorphism in the complete Drosophila male central nervous system connectome.

Abstract

PMID: 42691995 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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