Hi My Friends: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG.,Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes can be killers. In warmer climates, the bloodsuckers carry and spread diseases, including malaria, the second most deadly transmitted disease in Africa. The mosquitoes growing up in Zwiebel's lab are disease-free. But, as Zwiebel points out, they still bite. 
When the time came for chemical ecologist Walter Leal to test whether humans make a natural odor that attracts mosquitoes, Leal himself was the first to volunteer. In truth, there was little, if any, reason to be frightened. He and his colleagues were looking only for the substance itself, not trying to find out whether the compound would lure the insects to a blood meal. And the researchers found it--nonanal, a substance made by humans and birds that creates a powerful scent that Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes find irresistible. Leal only had to roll up his sleeve. His colleagues laid a syringe-like instrument next to his skin, and then wrapped his arm in aluminum foil to keep the environment confined. After an hour, the tip of the syringe was injected into a special machine to see if the syringe contained nonanal and, if so, how much his body had produced. Read more in this Discovery.
Credit: Kathy Keatley Garvey, UC Davis Department of Entomology
West Nile virus can infect a wide range of animals, including more than 300 species of birds and 60 species of mosquitoes. It also infects mammals, reptiles and even amphibians. But researchers have found that in most places, only a few key species of bird "hosts" and mosquito "vectors" are important in transmission of the virus. “We now know that in any given location, only one or two species of mosquitoes play a big role, and only a handful of birds appear to be important in overall transmission rates," said Marm Kilpatrick, a biologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who studies the ecology of infectious diseases. Three species of mosquitoes are key vectors for transmitting West Nile virus in much of North America. Interestingly, these mosquitoes are not among the species that feed frequently on people. Find out more in this news release.
Credit: Joseph Hoyt
Scientists have determined the evolutionary timeline for the microscopic parasites that cause one of the world's most widespread infectious diseases: malaria. Having an understanding of the origins of the lineages of such pathogens, or disease-causing organisms, is fundamental to understanding emerging diseases, according to the researchers. Now biologists Robert Ricklefs of the University of Missouri-St. Louis and Diana Outlaw of Mississippi State University in Starkville have found a molecular clock for malaria parasites that provides a more precise date. Find out more in this news release.
Credit: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Close
New Mosquito Repellant Could Be Frightening ... for the Mosquitoes!
Repellant overwhelms their odor sensors, scaring them away
In a small, narrow, temperature-controlled lab room at Vanderbilt University live some of the most deadly and dangerous animals in the world.
"These are Anopheles mosquitoes that still think that they're in Central Africa. We won't tell them any different," says Laurence Zwiebel, professor of molecular biology and pharmacology.
Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes can be killers. In warmer climates, the bloodsuckers carry and spread diseases, including malaria, the second most deadly transmitted disease in Africa. The mosquitoes growing up in Zwiebel's lab are disease-free. But, as Zwiebel points out, they still bite.
"Anopheles gambiae often shows a strong preference for biting people. How do they do this? What makes them so predisposed to bite humans?"
With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Zwiebel and his team want to find some answers. They know mosquitoes zero in on their next meal using their keen sense of smell. "A mosquito can smell you and me from a very long distance and can track its way to you based on odor plumes that we're giving off," explains vector biologist Jason Pitts.
The team has identified microscopic odor receptors on the mosquito's antennae that look like tiny microscopic hairs. "We've identified large families of receptors in the mosquito," says Pitts.
Different hairs target different smells. Pitts says Anopheles' hairs home-in on human body odors from the carbon dioxide in our breath to the ammonia in our sweaty feet. "Some mosquitoes have been shown to be highly attracted to feet," he notes.
"The number of compounds that have been identified in human sweat number in the hundreds," says Pitts. "Things like carbon dioxide, ammonia, which is a byproduct of human sweat, and lactic acid, that we give off in sweat, other animals don't. These are often cited as compounds that are part of the human signature. Which of those compounds are the most important [for the Anopheles mosquito] is still a subject of debate."
Researchers often refer to a mosquito as "her" because only female mosquitoes bite. They drink the blood for reproduction--to make eggs. "So, only female mosquitoes spread disease. A female will drink her weight in blood when she takes a blood meal from you," says Pitts.
The team has also isolated chemicals that target odor receptors and could one day be used to formulate a new class of mosquito repellent, potentially more powerful than Deet. The new repellent would bombard the mosquitoes with so many strong odors, it would scare them away.
"It's literally screaming into a mosquito's nose," says Zwiebel.
Zwiebel points out that other insects, including agricultural pests, also have these receptors. So do honeybees. So, such repellants would have to be used carefully. A better understanding of how the receptors work could one day help take the bite out of the mosquitoes' ability to spread deadly disease.
Miles O'Brien, Science Nation Correspondent
Ann Kellan, Science Nation Producer
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
ayabaca@gmail.com
ayabaca@hotmail.com
ayabaca@yahoo.com
Inscríbete en el Foro del blog y participa : A Vuelo De Un Quinde - El Foro!
When the time came for chemical ecologist Walter Leal to test whether humans make a natural odor that attracts mosquitoes, Leal himself was the first to volunteer. In truth, there was little, if any, reason to be frightened. He and his colleagues were looking only for the substance itself, not trying to find out whether the compound would lure the insects to a blood meal. And the researchers found it--nonanal, a substance made by humans and birds that creates a powerful scent that Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes find irresistible. Leal only had to roll up his sleeve. His colleagues laid a syringe-like instrument next to his skin, and then wrapped his arm in aluminum foil to keep the environment confined. After an hour, the tip of the syringe was injected into a special machine to see if the syringe contained nonanal and, if so, how much his body had produced. Read more in this Discovery.Credit: Kathy Keatley Garvey, UC Davis Department of Entomology
West Nile virus can infect a wide range of animals, including more than 300 species of birds and 60 species of mosquitoes. It also infects mammals, reptiles and even amphibians. But researchers have found that in most places, only a few key species of bird "hosts" and mosquito "vectors" are important in transmission of the virus. “We now know that in any given location, only one or two species of mosquitoes play a big role, and only a handful of birds appear to be important in overall transmission rates," said Marm Kilpatrick, a biologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who studies the ecology of infectious diseases. Three species of mosquitoes are key vectors for transmitting West Nile virus in much of North America. Interestingly, these mosquitoes are not among the species that feed frequently on people. Find out more in this news release.Credit: Joseph Hoyt
Scientists have determined the evolutionary timeline for the microscopic parasites that cause one of the world's most widespread infectious diseases: malaria. Having an understanding of the origins of the lineages of such pathogens, or disease-causing organisms, is fundamental to understanding emerging diseases, according to the researchers. Now biologists Robert Ricklefs of the University of Missouri-St. Louis and Diana Outlaw of Mississippi State University in Starkville have found a molecular clock for malaria parasites that provides a more precise date. Find out more in this news release.Credit: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Close
New Mosquito Repellant Could Be Frightening ... for the Mosquitoes!
Repellant overwhelms their odor sensors, scaring them away
In a small, narrow, temperature-controlled lab room at Vanderbilt University live some of the most deadly and dangerous animals in the world.
"These are Anopheles mosquitoes that still think that they're in Central Africa. We won't tell them any different," says Laurence Zwiebel, professor of molecular biology and pharmacology.
Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes can be killers. In warmer climates, the bloodsuckers carry and spread diseases, including malaria, the second most deadly transmitted disease in Africa. The mosquitoes growing up in Zwiebel's lab are disease-free. But, as Zwiebel points out, they still bite.
"Anopheles gambiae often shows a strong preference for biting people. How do they do this? What makes them so predisposed to bite humans?"
With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Zwiebel and his team want to find some answers. They know mosquitoes zero in on their next meal using their keen sense of smell. "A mosquito can smell you and me from a very long distance and can track its way to you based on odor plumes that we're giving off," explains vector biologist Jason Pitts.
The team has identified microscopic odor receptors on the mosquito's antennae that look like tiny microscopic hairs. "We've identified large families of receptors in the mosquito," says Pitts.
Different hairs target different smells. Pitts says Anopheles' hairs home-in on human body odors from the carbon dioxide in our breath to the ammonia in our sweaty feet. "Some mosquitoes have been shown to be highly attracted to feet," he notes.
"The number of compounds that have been identified in human sweat number in the hundreds," says Pitts. "Things like carbon dioxide, ammonia, which is a byproduct of human sweat, and lactic acid, that we give off in sweat, other animals don't. These are often cited as compounds that are part of the human signature. Which of those compounds are the most important [for the Anopheles mosquito] is still a subject of debate."
Researchers often refer to a mosquito as "her" because only female mosquitoes bite. They drink the blood for reproduction--to make eggs. "So, only female mosquitoes spread disease. A female will drink her weight in blood when she takes a blood meal from you," says Pitts.
The team has also isolated chemicals that target odor receptors and could one day be used to formulate a new class of mosquito repellent, potentially more powerful than Deet. The new repellent would bombard the mosquitoes with so many strong odors, it would scare them away.
"It's literally screaming into a mosquito's nose," says Zwiebel.
Zwiebel points out that other insects, including agricultural pests, also have these receptors. So do honeybees. So, such repellants would have to be used carefully. A better understanding of how the receptors work could one day help take the bite out of the mosquitoes' ability to spread deadly disease.
Miles O'Brien, Science Nation Correspondent
Ann Kellan, Science Nation Producer
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
ayabaca@gmail.com
ayabaca@hotmail.com
ayabaca@yahoo.com
Inscríbete en el Foro del blog y participa : A Vuelo De Un Quinde - El Foro!
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario