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Aedes aegypti mosquitoes drawn to humans
These hungry Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are drawn to human odor, evoking the iconic image of a man and women that were sent into space on the Pioneer plaque.
More about this image
It's known that female mosquitoes can track a human down by the smell of the carbon dioxide (CO2) we exhale, but once they get close, they tend to gravitate toward exposed areas of skin such as ankles and feet, being drawn there by skin odors.
Scientists at the University of California, Riverside, found that the very receptors in a mosquito's maxillary palp that detect CO2 are the ones that detect skin odors as well, thus explaining why mosquitoes are attracted to skin odor--smelly socks, worn clothes, bedding--even in the absence of CO2.
The new finding--that the CO2-sensitive olfactory neuron is also a sensitive detector of human skin--is critical not only for understanding the basis of the mosquito's host attraction and host preference, but also because it identifies this dual receptor of CO2 and skin-odorants as a key target that could be useful to disrupt host-seeking behavior and thus aid in the control of disease transmission.
This research was supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation. To learn more, see the UC-Riverside news story How mosquitoes are drawn to human skin and breath. (Date of Image: October 2013)
Credit: Genevieve Tauxe, University of California, Riverside
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