Mosquito heat seeking is driven by an ancestral cooling receptor
Chloé Greppi, Willem J. Laursen, Gonzalo Budelli, Elaine C. Chang, A Daniels, Lena van Giesen, Andrea L. Smidler, Flaminia Catteruccia, Paul Garrity
Abstract
Heat seeking is cool Mosquitoes seek hosts using several cues, one of which is body heat. Greppi et al. hypothesized that cooling-activated receptors could be used for locating mammalian hosts if they were rewired downstream for repulsion responses (see the Perspective by Lazzari). A gene family conserved in insects and known to be responsible for sensing changes in temperature in fruit flies was the starting point. Genome-wide analyses and labeled CRISPR-Cas9 mutants allowed visualization of the receptor in neurons of Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes' antennae and assessment of adult female mosquitoes with a disrupted copy of the receptor. This ancestral insect temperature regulatory system has been repurposed for host-finding by malaria mosquitoes. Science , this issue p. 681 ; see also p. 628