Divergent sensory transcriptomic profiles in positive and negative learning in <em>Bicyclus anynana</em> butterflies

Mate preference learning, where individuals learn to prefer or avoid specific phenotypes during mate selection, is pervasive across animal taxa and influences reproductive isolation and trait evolution. Despite its significance, the genetic basis underlying the associated valence attribution (whether to prefer or avoid) remains largely unclear. Both in terms of what genes are associated with attributing valence, and whether valence attribution is associated with transcriptional changes in both sensory tissues and neural circuits in the brain, or is restricted to the brain.&nbsp; Here, we investigate the neurogenomic basis of positive and negative mate preference learning using Bicyclus anynana butterflies. We put females in positive or negative learning scenarios, as well as a naïve control, and compared their transcriptomic profiles across three tissues: antennae, eyes, and brain using RNA-sequencing. Our results reveal tissue-specific transcriptional responses, with the antennae showi..., To determine the gene expression associated with different types of social learning, we exposed female B. anynana to different training/ exposure treatments for one hour (n = 10 per treatment) from August to October 2022. Exposure assays were conducted one hour after sunrise. Every individual used in our exposure assays were size- and age-matched: females were Day 0, ensuring sexual immaturity (Costanzo and Monteiro 2007), and males were Day 3, when their sex pheromones are known to be attractive to females (Nieberding et al. 2012). Naïve females were isolated and were not exposed to training stimuli (i.e. males), females that were exposed to a randomly selected 4-spotted male with undisrupted male sex pheromones were considered given a “positive training exposure”, and females that were exposed to a randomly selected 2-spotted male with disrupted male sex pheromones were considered given a “negative training exposure”, based on prior studies (Westerman et al. 2012; Westerman and Montei..., # Data from: Divergent sensory transcriptomic profiles in positive and negative learning in *Bicyclus anynana* butterflies Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.j9kd51crw](10.5061/dryad.j9kd51crw) ## Description of the data and file structure Naïve females were isolated and were not exposed to training stimuli (i.e. males), females that were exposed to a randomly selected 4-spotted male with undisrupted male sex pheromones were considered given a “positive training exposure”, and females that were exposed to a randomly selected 2-spotted male with disrupted male sex pheromones were considered given a “negative training exposure” (n = 10 per training exposure). After one hour of exposure (training), the females were decapitated with RNA-free scissors and flash frozen. Three tissues: antennae, eyes and brain, were dissected and their RNA was extracted. Libraries were prepared and sent for RNA-seq. Sequencing data was analysed using DESeq2 and permutation tests. ### Files and variables #### ...,