SC Connecticut News

Yale researchers have identified how taste influences mosquito biting behavior, which could help develop methods to deter bites and prevent the spread of diseases. The study, published in Nature on October 16, focused on the Asian tiger mosquito, a species known for spreading illnesses like dengue and chikungunya.

The research team explored how neurons in mosquitoes encode different tastes and how these tastes affect their biting, feeding, and egg-laying behaviors. They discovered that certain compounds in human sweat increase mosquito biting behavior, while bitter compounds can suppress feeding and egg-laying.

“This mosquito is capable of spreading many diseases, including dengue and chikungunya,” said John Carlson, the senior author of the study and Eugene Higgins Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at Yale. “And it’s outcompeting other mosquito species, so it could be an even greater problem in our future.”

Researchers tested 46 taste compounds to see how they affected mosquitoes' taste organs. They found that sugars excited many neurons while some compounds inhibited activity. This discovery shows that mosquitoes have a broad ability to differentiate tastes.

“We’ve done a lot of research on taste in the fruit fly, and we haven’t seen this kind of widespread inhibition before in flies,” Carlson noted. “Having these two different responses — excitation and inhibition — gives mosquitoes an expanded ability to encode taste.”

Lead author Lisa Baik explained that combinations of salt and amino acids found in human sweat increased biting behavior when presented together. “There are a lot of places in nature that have salt and a lot of places that have amino acids, but humans have both together on our skin,” Baik said.

Carlson suggested that these findings might explain why some people are more attractive to mosquitoes than others: “Some people may just taste better to mosquitoes.”

The study's insights into mosquito behavior could lead to new ways to protect against bites. “Our study may be helpful in identifying compounds that protect us from mosquito bites in a new way,” Carlson added.