SENSORY BASIS FOR BEHAVIOR IN MOSQUITOES

传染病和寄生虫病占总死亡率的40% 在发展中国家，其中很大一部分是疾病 如黄热病、疟疾、丝虫病、登革热和脑炎--所有 由蚊子携带。 病媒传播的病原体引起的疾病和虚弱 疾病给全球经济造成毁灭性的损失。 这种情况 由于用于控制的杀虫剂成本不断上升， 这些载体显示出不断增强的耐化学性。 更 迫切需要有效的控制策略;这些策略可能是最重要的。 合理有效地设计，如果生理和行为的 矢量也被考虑在内。 目前的申请是为了继续一个项目， 其总体目标是阐明控制 气味介导的蚊子行为。 这些行为包括 寻找寄主、产卵和植物取食， 蚊子繁殖和流行病能力。 寻找主机是 雌虫对寄主挥发物的长距离定向， 在性腺营养周期中由内源性因子调节， 使女性的外周感觉系统 对宿主引诱剂乳酸具有功能性嗅觉丧失。 我们取得了 在分离和确定防止艾滋病毒/艾滋病的内在因素方面取得的进展 埃及伊蚊的远程宿主吸引力，我们已经将我们的 对寻找宿主和其他行为的观察， 行为控制模型，解释了不同的行为 在这个物种的表达。 我们在本申请中的具体目标是 在其他种类的蚊子中测试我们模型的预测， 继续我们的纯化和表征工作， 寻找宿主的内源性抑制剂。

Infectious and parasitic diseases' account for 40% of the total mortality in developing countries, and a significant proportion of these are diseases such as yellow fever, malaria, filariasis, dengue, and encephalitis--all carried by mosquitoes. The morbidity and debility caused by vector-borne diseases exert a devastating toll on the global economy. This situation is exacerbated by the escalating cost of insecticides for the control of vectors that display ever-increasing levels of chemical resistance. More effective control strategies are urgently needed; these can be most rationally and effectively designed if the physiology and behavior of the vector are taken into consideration. The current application is for the continuation of a project that has as its overall goal the elucidation of the mechanisms that control odor-mediated behaviors in the mosquito. Such behaviors include host-seeking, oviposition, and plant feeding and are of critical importance in mosquito reproduction and epidemiological competence. Host-seeking is the long-distance orientation of the female to host volatiles and is modulated during the gonotrophic cycle by endogenous factors that act on the peripheral sensory system in such a way as to render the female functionally anosmic to the host attractant lactic acid. We have made progress in isolating and identifying the endogenous factors that prevent long-range host attraction in Aedes aegypti, and we have incorporated our observations of host-seeking and other behaviors into a neurophysiological model of behavioral control that explains differential behavioral expression in this species. Our specific aims in this application are to test the predictions of our model in other species of mosquitoes and to continue our work on the purification and characterization of the endogenous inhibitors of host-seeking.