Researchers identify dominant chemical that attracts mosquitoes to humans

October 26, 2009
mosquito

A female mosquito of the Culicidae family (Culiseta longiareolata). Image: Wikipedia

Scientists at the University of California, Davis, have identified the dominant odor naturally produced in humans and birds that attracts the blood-feeding Culex mosquitoes, which transmit West Nile virus and other life-threatening diseases.

The groundbreaking research, published this week in the early online edition of the , explains why mosquitoes shifted hosts from birds to humans and paves the way for key developments in mosquito and disease control.

Entomology professor Walter Leal and postdoctoral researcher Zain Syed found that nonanal (sounds like NAWN-uh-nawl) is the powerful semiochemical that triggers the mosquitoes' keen sense of smell, directing them toward a blood meal. A semiochemical is a chemical substance or mixture that carries a message.

"Nonanal is how they find us," Leal said. "The antennae of the Culex quinquefasciatus are highly developed to detect even extremely low concentrations of nonanal." Mosquitoes detect smells with the olfactory receptor neurons of their antennae.

Birds, the main hosts of mosquitoes, serve as the reservoir for the West Nile virus, Leal said. When infected mosquitoes take a blood meal, they transmit the virus to their hosts, which include birds, humans, horses, dogs, cats, bats, chipmunks, skunks, squirrels and domestic rabbits. Since 1999, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recorded 29,397 human cases and 1,147 fatalities in the United States alone.

The UC Davis researchers tested hundreds of naturally occurring compounds emitted by people and birds. They collected chemical odors from 16 adult human subjects, representing multiple races and ethnic groups.

"We then determined the specificity and sensitivity of the olfactory receptor neurons to the isolated compounds on the antennae of the ," Syed said.

Leal and Syed found that nonanal acts synergistically with , a known mosquito attractant. "We baited mosquito traps with a combination of nonanal and carbon dioxide and we were drawing in as many as 2,000 a night in Yolo County, near Davis," Syed said. "Nonanal, in combination with carbon dioxide, increased trap captures by more than 50 percent, compared to traps baited with carbon dioxide alone."

Source: University of California - Davis

4.8 /5 (18 votes)  

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tkjtkj
Oct 26, 2009

Rank: 5 / 5 (1)
it would have been helful had the article said more about such an interesting chemical ..

What other 'messages' does it communicate? Is it part of a collection of sex pheremones? Where is it made? How? Here's some answers:
http://en.wikiped.../Nonanal
Also called: nonanaldehyde ..fruity smell ...
Seems its a chemical that's its also added to foods and to perfume!
Arikin
Oct 27, 2009

Rank: 5 / 5 (1)
Hmmm... put the chemicals in the hollow center of a bug zapper. Come and get it, Zap!

Or do they plan to mask our smelly semiochemical with a spray on? :-)
FerretPD
Oct 27, 2009

Rank: not rated yet
I thought nonanol was a repellent...they didn't specify *which* type of nonanol...
and I wonder when we'll see attractant baits for bbug zappers (I have a little list...)
david_42
Oct 27, 2009

Rank: 5 / 5 (1)
Nonanal, not nonanol.
FerretPD
Oct 28, 2009

Rank: not rated yet
Well, *duh*. (wanders off, mumbling to himself: "One little letter...")
Rank 4.8 /5 (18 votes)
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