Title | The olfactory gating of visual preferences to human skin and visible spectra in mosquitoes |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2022 |
Authors | San Alberto DAlonso, Rusch C, Zhan Y, Straw AD, Montell C, Riffell JA |
Journal | Nat Commun |
Volume | 13 |
Issue | 1 |
Pagination | 555 |
Date Published | 2022 02 04 |
ISSN | 2041-1723 |
Keywords | Aedes, Animals, Carbon Dioxide, Culicidae, Humans, Light, Odorants, Olfactory Cortex, Skin, Smell, Species Specificity, Visual Perception |
Abstract | Mosquitoes track odors, locate hosts, and find mates visually. The color of a food resource, such as a flower or warm-blooded host, can be dominated by long wavelengths of the visible light spectrum (green to red for humans) and is likely important for object recognition and localization. However, little is known about the hues that attract mosquitoes or how odor affects mosquito visual search behaviors. We use a real-time 3D tracking system and wind tunnel that allows careful control of the olfactory and visual environment to quantify the behavior of more than 1.3 million mosquito trajectories. We find that CO induces a strong attraction to specific spectral bands, including those that humans perceive as cyan, orange, and red. Sensitivity to orange and red correlates with mosquitoes' strong attraction to the color spectrum of human skin, which is dominated by these wavelengths. The attraction is eliminated by filtering the orange and red bands from the skin color spectrum and by introducing mutations targeting specific long-wavelength opsins or CO detection. Collectively, our results show that odor is critical for mosquitoes' wavelength preferences and that the mosquito visual system is a promising target for inhibiting their attraction to human hosts. |
DOI | 10.1038/s41467-022-28195-x |
Alternate Journal | Nat Commun |
PubMed ID | 35121739 |
PubMed Central ID | PMC8816903 |
Grant List | R01 AI165575 / AI / NIAID NIH HHS / United States R01 AI148300 / AI / NIAID NIH HHS / United States R01 DC016278 / DC / NIDCD NIH HHS / United States R01 EY008117 / EY / NEI NIH HHS / United States R21 AI137947 / AI / NIAID NIH HHS / United States |