Mosquito heat seeking is driven by an ancestral cooling receptor.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32029627.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/science.aay9847 and PMC identifier 8092076.
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Abstract
Mosquitoes transmit pathogens that kill >700,000 people annually. These insects use body heat to locate and feed on warm-blooded hosts, but the molecular basis of such behavior is unknown. Here, we identify ionotropic receptor IR21a, a receptor conserved throughout insects, as a key mediator of heat seeking in the malaria vector <i>Anopheles gambiae</i> Although <i>Ir21a</i> mediates heat avoidance in <i>Drosophila</i>, we find it drives heat seeking and heat-stimulated blood feeding in <i>Anopheles</i> At a cellular level, <i>Ir21a</i> is essential for the detection of cooling, suggesting that during evolution mosquito heat seeking relied on cooling-mediated repulsion. Our data indicate that the evolution of blood feeding in <i>Anopheles</i> involves repurposing an ancestral thermoreceptor from non-blood-feeding Diptera.
Medical subject headings
- Anopheles
- Body Temperature
- Evolution, Molecular
- Host-Seeking Behavior
- Hot Temperature
- Receptors, Ionotropic Glutamate
- Thermoreceptors