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

Stuart Berg, Isabella R Beckett, Marta Costa, Philipp Schlegel, Michal Januszewski, Elizabeth C Marin, Aljoscha Nern, Stephan Preibisch, Wei Qiu, Shin-ya Takemura, Alexandra M C Fragniere, Andrew S Champion, Diane-Yayra Adjavon, Michael Cook, Marina Gkantia, Kenneth J Hayworth, Gary B Huang, Florian Kampf, William T Katz, Zhiyuan Lu et al. (90 additional authors not shown)

Abstract: h3>Abstract</h3> <p>Sex differences in behaviour exist across all animals, typically under strong genetic regulation. In <i>Drosophila</i>, <i>fruitless</i>/<i>doublesex</i> transcription factors can identify dimorphic neurons but their organisation into functional circuits remains unclear.</p><p>We present the connectome of the entire <i>Drosophila</i> male central nervous system. This contains 166,691 neurons spanning the brain and nerve cord, fully proofread and annotated including <i>fruitless</i>/<i>doublesex</i> expression and 11,691 types. We provide the first comprehensive comparison between male and female brain connectomes to synaptic resolution, finding 7,205 isomorphic, 114 dimorphic, 262 male-specific and 69 female-specific types.</p><p>This resource enables analysis of full sensory-to-motor circuits underlying complex behaviours and the impact of dimorphic elements. Sex-specific/dimorphic neurons are concentrated in higher brain centres while the sensory and motor periphery are largely isomorphic. Within higher centres, male-specific connections are organised into hotspots defined by male-specific neurons or arbours. Numerous circuit switches reroute sensory information to form antagonistic circuits controlling opposing behaviours.</p>

External IDs:doi:10.1101/2025.10.09.680999