Meeting Abstract
Mosquitoes are the deadliest animals on earth and the diseases they transmit, such as zika, chikungunya and malaria, are responsible for at least one million deaths each year. Current strategies to control populations of disease vector insects are being challenged, in part because of rising insecticide resistance. Therefore, novel strategies, informed by improved knowledge of mosquito biology, are urgently needed. However, progress in identifying new targets for vector control has been hindered by a lack of understanding of the mechanisms that regulate mosquito-host interactions. Multiple sensory modalities enable mosquitoes to navigate through their environment and locate suitable hosts. Although mosquitoes’ responses to olfactory cues have been well characterized, comparatively less is known about the way visual stimuli are processed and integrated by these insects. Furthermore, in most cases, the visual sense of mosquitoes has been investigated in the context of their attraction to host-like objects. But visual cues can also signal threats such as a swatting hand. Leveraging a combination of freely moving and tethered preparations, we analyzed the avoidance behavior of multiple mosquito species to threat-like stimuli across developmental stages. Electrophysiological recordings in tethered-behaving individuals were then performed to unravel the underlying neural mechanisms. The significance of these results will be discussed relative to the design of control tools.
