Molecular heterogeneity of glia across sexes.

A comprehensive description of nervous system function, and sex dimorphism within, is incomplete without clear assessment of the diversity of its component cell types, neurons and glia. has an invariant nervous system with the first mapped connectome of a multicellular organism and single-cell atlas of component neurons. Here we present single nuclear RNA-seq evaluation of glia across the entire adult nervous system, including both sexes. Machine learning models enabled us to identify both sex-shared and sex-specific glia and glial subclasses. We have identified and validated molecular markers and for these molecular subcategories. Comparative analytics also reveals previously unappreciated molecular heterogeneity in anatomically identical glia between and within sexes, indicating consequent functional heterogeneity. Furthermore, our datasets reveal that while adult glia express neuropeptide genes, they lack the canonical -dependent dense core vesicle release machinery. Thus, glia employ alternate neuromodulator processing mechanisms. Overall, this molecular atlas, available at www.wormglia.org, reveals rich insights into heterogeneity and sex dimorphism in glia across the entire nervous system of an adult animal.