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Multimodal synergisms in host stimuli drive landing response in malaria mosquitoes

Multimodal synergisms in host stimuli drive landing response in malaria mosquitoes

Carnaghi, Manuela, Belmain, Steven R. ORCID: 0000-0002-5590-7545 , Hopkins, Richard J. ORCID: 0000-0003-4935-5825 and Hawkes, Frances M. ORCID: 0000-0002-0964-3702 (2021) Multimodal synergisms in host stimuli drive landing response in malaria mosquitoes. Scientific Reports, 11:7379. ISSN 2045-2322 (Online) (doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86772-4)

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Abstract

Anopheles mosquitoes transmit malaria, which affects one-fifth of the world population. A comprehensive understanding of mosquito behaviour is essential for the development of novel tools for vector control and surveillance. Despite abundant research on mosquito behaviour, little is known on the stimuli that drive malaria vectors during the landing phase of host-seeking. Using behavioural assays with a multimodal step approach we quantified both the individual and the combined effect of three host-associated stimuli in eliciting landing in Anopheles coluzzii females. We demonstrated that visual, olfactory and thermal sensory stimuli interact synergistically to increase the landing response. Furthermore, if considering only the fnal outcome (i.e. landing response), our insect model can bypass the absence of either a thermal or a visual stimulus, provided that at least one of these is presented simultaneously with the olfactory stimuli, suggesting that landing is the result of a flexible but accurate stimuli integration. These results have important implications for the development of mosquito control and surveillance tools.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: © The Author(s) 2021. Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Uncontrolled Keywords: Anopheles, landing, mosquito, behaviour
Subjects: S Agriculture > S Agriculture (General)
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group: Faculty of Engineering & Science
Faculty of Engineering & Science > Natural Resources Institute
Faculty of Engineering & Science > Natural Resources Institute > Agriculture, Health & Environment Department
Last Modified: 08 Apr 2021 13:18
URI: http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/32108

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