Non-Canonical Odor Coding in the Mosquito

Authors

Margaret Herre
Olivia V Goldman
Tzu-Chiao Lu
Gabriela Caballero-Vidal
Yanyan Qi
Zachary N Gilbert
Zhongyan Gong
Takeshi Morita
Saher Rahiel
Majid Ghaninia
Rickard Ignell
Benjamin J Matthews
Hongjie Li
Leslie B Vosshall
Meg A Younger

Language

English

Publication Date

8-18-2022

Journal

Cell

DOI

10.1016/j.cell.2022.07.024

PMID

35985288

PMCID

PMC9480278

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

9-16-2022

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Author MSS

Abstract

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are a persistent human foe, transmitting arboviruses including dengue when they feed on human blood. Mosquitoes are intensely attracted to body odor and carbon dioxide, which they detect using ionotropic chemosensory receptors encoded by three large multi-gene families. Genetic mutations that disrupt the olfactory system have modest effects on human attraction, suggesting redundancy in odor coding. The canonical view is that olfactory sensory neurons each express a single chemosensory receptor that defines its ligand selectivity. We discovered that Ae. aegypti uses a different organizational principle, with many neurons co-expressing multiple chemosensory receptor genes. In vivo electrophysiology demonstrates that the broad ligand-sensitivity of mosquito olfactory neurons depends on this non-canonical co-expression. The redundancy afforded by an olfactory system in which neurons co-express multiple chemosensory receptors may increase the robustness of the mosquito olfactory system and explain our long-standing inability to disrupt the detection of humans by mosquitoes.

Keywords

Aedes, Animals, Humans, Ligands, Odorants, Olfactory Receptor Neurons

Published Open-Access

yes

Recommended Citation

Herre, Margaret; Goldman, Olivia V; Lu, Tzu-Chiao; et al., "Non-Canonical Odor Coding in the Mosquito" (2022). Huffington Center on Aging Staff Publications. 57.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/aging_research/57