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Olfaction

Mosquito receptor for human-sweat odorant

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Abstract

Female Anopheles mosquitoes, the world's most important vector of Plasmodium falciparum malaria, locate their human hosts primarily through olfactory cues1, but the molecular mechanisms that underlie this recognition are a mystery. Here we show that the Anopheles gambiae protein AgOr1, a female-specific member of a family of putative odorant receptors2,3, responds to a component of human sweat. Compounds designed to activate or block receptors of this type could function as attractants for trapping mosquitoes or as insect repellents in helping to control Anopheles and other insect pests.

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Figure 1: Identification of a mosquito odorant receptor that responds to a component of human sweat by expression in a Drosophila olfactory receptor neuron.

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Author information

Author notes

  1. A. Nicole Fox

    Present address: Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, 91125, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University, New Haven, 06520, Connecticut, USA

    Elissa A. Hallem & John R. Carlson

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, Program in Developmental Biology and Center for Molecular Neuroscience, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, 37235, Tennessee, USA

    A. Nicole Fox & Laurence J. Zwiebel

Authors
  1. Elissa A. Hallem
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  2. A. Nicole Fox
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  3. Laurence J. Zwiebel
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  4. John R. Carlson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to John R. Carlson.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Hallem, E., Nicole Fox, A., Zwiebel, L. et al. Mosquito receptor for human-sweat odorant. Nature 427, 212–213 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/427212a

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