Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

A persistent behavioral state enables sustained predation of humans by mosquitoes

View ORCID ProfileTrevor R. Sorrells, View ORCID ProfileAnjali Pandey, View ORCID ProfileAdriana Rosas-Villegas, View ORCID ProfileLeslie B. Vosshall
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.06.463436
Trevor R. Sorrells
1Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065 USA
2Kavli Neural Systems Institute, New York, NY 10065 USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Trevor R. Sorrells
  • For correspondence: trevorsorrells@gmail.com leslie.vosshall@rockefeller.edu
Anjali Pandey
1Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065 USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Anjali Pandey
Adriana Rosas-Villegas
1Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065 USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Adriana Rosas-Villegas
Leslie B. Vosshall
1Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065 USA
2Kavli Neural Systems Institute, New York, NY 10065 USA
3Howard Hughes Medical Institute, New York, NY 10065 USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Leslie B. Vosshall
  • For correspondence: trevorsorrells@gmail.com leslie.vosshall@rockefeller.edu
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Data/Code
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

Predatory animals pursue prey in a noisy sensory landscape, deciding when to continue or abandon their chase. The mosquito Aedes aegypti is a micropredator that first detects humans at a distance through sensory cues such as carbon dioxide. As a mosquito nears its target it senses more proximal cues such as body heat that guides it to a meal of blood. How long the search for blood continues after initial detection of a human is not known. Here we show that a 5-second optogenetic pulse of fictive carbon dioxide induced a persistent behavioral state in female mosquitoes that lasted for more than 10 minutes. This state is highly specific to females searching for a blood meal and was not induced in recently blood-fed females or in males, who do not feed on blood. In males that lack the gene fruitless, which controls persistent social behaviors in other insects, fictive carbon dioxide induced a long-lasting behavior response resembling the predatory state of females. Finally, we show that the persistent state triggered by detection of fictive carbon dioxide enabled females to engorge on a blood meal mimic offered up to 14 minutes after the initial 5-second stimulus. Our results demonstrate that a persistent internal state allows female mosquitoes to integrate multiple human sensory cues over long timescales, an ability that is key to their success as an apex micropredator of humans.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • Minor edits to methods and added missing literature references.

  • https://github.com/trevorsorrells/Optothermocycler

  • https://github.com/kristinbranson/APT

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted December 24, 2021.
Download PDF

Supplementary Material

Data/Code
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
A persistent behavioral state enables sustained predation of humans by mosquitoes
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
A persistent behavioral state enables sustained predation of humans by mosquitoes
Trevor R. Sorrells, Anjali Pandey, Adriana Rosas-Villegas, Leslie B. Vosshall
bioRxiv 2021.10.06.463436; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.06.463436
Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
A persistent behavioral state enables sustained predation of humans by mosquitoes
Trevor R. Sorrells, Anjali Pandey, Adriana Rosas-Villegas, Leslie B. Vosshall
bioRxiv 2021.10.06.463436; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.06.463436

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Neuroscience
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (4383)
  • Biochemistry (9599)
  • Bioengineering (7095)
  • Bioinformatics (24866)
  • Biophysics (12620)
  • Cancer Biology (9958)
  • Cell Biology (14357)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (7953)
  • Ecology (12109)
  • Epidemiology (2067)
  • Evolutionary Biology (15989)
  • Genetics (10927)
  • Genomics (14743)
  • Immunology (9870)
  • Microbiology (23678)
  • Molecular Biology (9486)
  • Neuroscience (50876)
  • Paleontology (369)
  • Pathology (1540)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2683)
  • Physiology (4017)
  • Plant Biology (8657)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1510)
  • Synthetic Biology (2397)
  • Systems Biology (6436)
  • Zoology (1346)