US-Switzerland Cooperative Research: Effect of Mosquito Accessory Gland Components on Pre-oviposition Behavior

该奖项为马克·J·克洛登教授提供了部分支持， 爱达荷州大学昆虫学系， 在Hans Briegel的实验室里， 来自苏黎世。 他们对内源性因素如何调节 昆虫的行为，他们将合作研究如何几个 体液因子，存在于蚊子卵发育过程中， 抑制寄主寻找并增加产卵的吸引力 网站. 到目前为止，克洛登教授的方法主要是 使用显微外科手术，包括腺体切除和移植。 通过与Briegel博士和苏黎世的其他人合作， 希望学习他们的生化方法，包括技术， 分离雄性附腺中的成分。 他 这次为期六个月的访问的研究目标是提取配件 雄性埃及伊蚊的腺体成分，测试 单个组分对妊娠雌性动物的行为影响， 并鉴定在产卵前表现出活性的成分 生物测定 虽然产卵前行为并不直接影响 蚊子种群的病媒潜力，这是一个主要因素， 繁殖成功和维持成年种群 密度 为了更好地了解 蚊子传播的疾病，这是有帮助的，也了解 控制蚊子行为的机制，以及雌性蚊子如何 在特定的时间表现出特定的行为 是 可以想象的是，天然产品可以被确定为干扰 与许多不同昆虫的产卵前行为有关;然而， 我们需要了解控制这种行为的机制 先 这项研究将有助于实现这一目标。

This award provides partial support for Professor Marc J. Klowden, Division of Entomology, University of Idaho, to spend his sabbatical in the laboratory of Hans Briegel, Institute of Zoology, University of Zurich. They share an interest in how endogenous factors regulate insect behavior, and they will collaborate in a study of how several humoral factors, present during egg development in the mosquito, inhibit host seeking and increase the attraction to oviposition sites. Professor Klowden's approach until now has largely been to use microsurgery, involving gland ablation and transplantation. Through collaboration with Dr. Briegel and others at Zurich, he expects to learn their biochemical approach, including techniques for fractionating the components in the male accessory glands. His research goals for this six-month visit are to extract the accessory gland components of male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, test the individual components for their behavioral effects in gravid females, and identify the components that show activity in the pre-oviposition bioassay. Although pre-oviposition behavior does not directly influence the vector potential of a mosquito population, it is a major factor in reproductive success and the maintenance of adult population densities. In order to understand better the epidemiology of mosquito-borne diseases, it is helpful also to understand the mechanisms that control mosquito behavior and how the female comes to express a particular behavior at a particular time. It is conceivable that natural products could be identified that interfere with the pre-oviposition behavior of many different insects; however, the mechanisms that regulate this behavior need to be understood first. This research will contribute to that goal.