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Just like fresh-baked cookies or sizzling bacon is to us, the scent of your sweat is a mouthwatering aroma to mosquitoes. Now, scientists have discovered how these undesirable insects zero in on our delectable odor.

It's actually the odor from lactic acid and other acidic volatiles found in human sweat that some mosquitoes are attracted to when seeking a blood meal. A team of researchers from the Laboratory of Tropical Genetics at Florida International University in Miami, has identified a unique olfactory receptor used to detect these odors in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which are known to transmit dangerous and sometimes deadly diseases including yellow fever, dengue and Zika. The guilty receptor is known to scientists as Ionotropic Receptor 8a, or simply IR8a.

"People have been looking for more than 40 years," said FIU biologist Matthew DeGennaro, who leads the lab where the discovery was made. "Even in the 1960s, scientists knew it was sweat and lactic acid, but no one knew how those were sensed. Back then, mosquito scientists didn't have genetics."

[...] The FIU team's discovery could give rise to a new generation of attractants to lure adult mosquitoes to traps for population control. It also offers researchers a roadmap for making people invisible—at least to mosquitoes.

"Blocking the IR8a pathway could be an important strategy for repellent design," DeGennaro said.

[...] More information: Joshua I. Raji et al. Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes Detect Acidic Volatiles Found in Human Odor Using the IR8a Pathway, Current Biology (2019). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.02.045

Title		Scientists Discover How Mosquitoes Zero in on our Sweat
Date		Saturday March 30 2019, @06:30AM
Author		chromas
Topic
from the blood,-sweat-&-tears dept.

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