
==== Front
bioRxiv
BIORXIV
bioRxiv
2692-8205
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

10.1101/2024.08.22.608850
preprint
1
Article
Cellular evolution of the hypothalamic preoptic area of behaviorally divergent deer mice
Chen Jenny http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6664-2597

Richardson Phoebe R http://orcid.org/0009-0008-5650-1556

Kirby Christopher http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7292-9044

Eddy Sean R http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6676-4706

Hoekstra Hopi http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1431-1769

26 8 2024
2024.08.22.608850https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator.
http://biorxiv.org/lookup/doi/10.1101/2024.08.22.608850
nihpp-2024.08.22.608850.pdf
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 cellular atlas of the MPOA for males and females of both Peromyscus species. We identify four cell types that are differentially abundant across species, two of which may account for species differences in parental care behavior. Our data further implicate two sex-biased cell types to be important for the evolution of sex-specific behavior. Finally, we show a remarkable reduction of sex-biased gene expression in P. polionotus, a monogamous species that also exhibits reduced sexual dimorphism in parental care behavior. Our MPOA atlas is a powerful resource to investigate how molecular neuronal traits may be evolving to give rise to innate differences in social behavior across animal species.
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pmc
