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Q&A ViewAttendees 4

Physiology, Biochemistry, and Toxicology

10-Minute Paper

PBT: Genetics and Physiology

Cellular and molecular bases of short-range attraction in Anopheles mosquitoes

Wednesday, November 3, 2021
9:24 AM - 9:36 AM MT
Location: Colorado Convention Center, Meeting Room 405-407
In-Person

Female mosquitoes use multiple sensory cues to locate hosts for blood feeding, a process that transmits diseases killing >500,000 people annually. While detection mechanisms for signals like CO2 and odors, which alert mosquitoes to hosts meters away, have been widely studied, less is known about the detection of temperature and humidity, cues which dissipate within a few centimeters of the host. Such short-range cues influence landing and promote blood-feeding, suggesting their receptors as targets for disrupting disease transmission. In Drosophila, a subset of Ionotropic Receptor (IR) family ion channels mediate temperature and humidity detection. We recently showed one IR, IR21a, drives heat-seeking in the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae. However, the cellular and molecular basis of mosquito humidity-seeking remains unknown. To identify humidity detection’s cellular and molecular basis, we have examined the function of the Anopheles gambiae ortholog of Ir93a, a co-receptor that, in Drosophila, mediates detection of both temperature (with IR21a) and humidity (with other IRs). Using molecular genetics, we have identified multiple, distinct groups of IR93a-dependent thermo- and hygro-receptors in the antenna and characterized their stimulus sensitivity. At the behavioral level, we find that loss of Ir93a eliminates water-seeking, reduces the ability to maintain attraction to a host, and dramatically decreases blood-feeding from artificial membrane feeders. Together, these data suggest that Ir93a-dependent detection of short-range cues has a profound influence on mosquito blood feeding behavior. The conservation of IR93a across insects raises the possibility that its role is conserved in multiple disease vectors.