A comparative brain atlas of Mexican cavefish identifies naturally-occurring changes in cellular composition and gene expression

Understanding how naturally occurring genetic variation shapes human health and disease is critical for improving diagnosis and treatment strategies. The Mexican cavefish, Astyanax mexicanus, represents a powerful system for evolutionary medicine, enabling investigation of naturally evolved mechanisms of resilience to disease-related traits including diabetes, obesity, insomnia, and eye loss. Larval A. mexicanus, like zebrafish, are transparent, allowing whole-brain imaging, circuit mapping, and the generation of computationally derived atlases that precisely quantify neuroanatomical differences between surface and cave populations. Developing a molecular map of brain cell types provides a foundation for identifying evolved differences in neural circuits and physiology. Here, we present a single-cell atlas of the larval cavefish brain that reveals widespread divergence in the abundance and molecular signatures of neurons and glia. Our cell type map validates known neuroanatomical differences, including a reduction of the optic tectum and expansion of the pineal gland in cavefish. We uncover substantial changes in multiple glial cell classes that are linked to neural regulation of behavior, including microglia. Analysis of differential gene expression between surface and cavefish microglia revealed enhanced genes associated with synaptic pruning and clearance of neural debris, suggesting cavefish increased microglia activity to shape brain development. We also analyzed cell types that did not classify as canonical neurons or glia and identified notable divergence in transcriptomes and cell composition, including reduced meningeal fibroblasts in cavefish and substantial transcriptional changes related to phototransduction in non-visual photoreceptors within the pineal gland. Together, these findings provide a comprehensive atlas of cell type-specific gene expression differences between A. mexicanus surface and cavefish, establishing a platform for dissecting the molecular and cellular basis of evolved disease resilience in cavefish