Defining the larval repertoire of Aedes aegypti somatosensory neurons

PROJECT SUMMARY Somatosensory neurons shape an animal’s experience of the world, allowing for perception and discrimination of temperature, touch, pressure, pain, and movement. Perception of these stimuli depends on cell type-specific behaviors of somatosensory neurons: innervation of discrete territories peripherally, projection to stereotyped locations centrally, selective expression of ion channels and sensory receptors, and choice of appropriate synaptic partners. Despite the importance of somatosensory neurons to sensation and motor control in all animals, we have a limited understanding of somatosensory neuron morphology, diversity, and function in Aedes aegypti, a major vector of human diseases. In this application we aim to close this important gap in knowledge, leveraging our expertise in insect somatosensory neuron development to anatomically and molecularly define the repertoire of somatosensory neurons that innervate the Aedes body wall. central hypothesis is that different types of somatosensory neurons mediate different sensory Our modalities, and that features of cell types will be manifest in morphology and gene expression patterns. Using a robust pipeline we developed for RNA-Seq expression profiling coupled to high resolution imaging of peripheral innervation patterns we aim to provide a comprehensive map of Aedes somatosensory neuron diversity.