Scientists Discover Mosquito's 'Nose'

Nov. 29 -- Scientists have identified some of the genes that enable a mosquito to smell and seek out its human victim, opening the door to a new generation of chemicals specifically designed to reduce the effectiveness of this disease-carrying killer.

The genes, which are strikingly similar to the genes that give humans a sense of smell, were identified in a particularly deadly mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, an African species that spreads malaria and feeds primarily on humans.

"Many people, including myself, believe it is the most dangerous animal on the planet," says Laurence J. Zwiebel, , assistant professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt University.

The discovery, made in Zwiebel's lab in collaboration with scientists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Yale University, was revealed in the Nov. 27 issue of the online version of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

It is presumed that the same genes are present in all species of mosquitoes, but the researchers zeroed in first on Anopheles gambiae because of its deadly legacy.

"More people die of malaria every year, according to the World Health Organization, than anything else but tuberculous," Zwiebel says. "Literally millions of people die every year from malaria," especially in sub-Saharan Africa where this mosquito is the primary carrier, or vector, of the disease.

That grim fact is why the WHO, the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health are supporting a broad-based research program aimed at reducing the threat from mosquitoes. The identification of the specific genes that allow mosquitoes to detect the odor of humans at a considerable distance doesn't mean the battle has been won, but victory has moved significantly closer.

At the very least, "rather than looking for a needle in a humongous haystack, we have made the haystack a little smaller," Zwiebel says.

The "needle," in this case, is some sort of chemical that would be far more effective than those currently available to repel mosquitoes. And conversely, scientists hope to find an attractant, as well as a repellant, so they can lure mosquitoes into traps loaded with insecticide.