Heritability of attractiveness to mosquitoes

Fernández-Grandon, G. Mandela, Gezan, Salvador A., Armour, John A. L., Pickett, John ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1008-6595 and Logan, James G. 2015. Heritability of attractiveness to mosquitoes. PLoS ONE 10 (4) , e0122716. 10.1371/journal.pone.0122716

Preview

PDF - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (4MB) | Preview

Abstract

Female mosquitoes display preferences for certain individuals over others, which is determined by differences in volatile chemicals produced by the human body and detected by mosquitoes. Body odour can be controlled genetically but the existence of a genetic basis for differential attraction to insects has never been formally demonstrated. This study investigated heritability of attractiveness to mosquitoes by evaluating the response of Aedes aegypti (=Stegomyia aegypti) mosquitoes to odours from the hands of identical and non-identical twins in a dual-choice assay. Volatiles from individuals in an identical twin pair showed a high correlation in attractiveness to mosquitoes, while non-identical twin pairs showed a significantly lower correlation. Overall, there was a strong narrow-sense heritability of 0.62 (SE 0.124) for relative attraction and 0.67 (0.354) for flight activity based on the average of ten measurements. The results demonstrate an underlying genetic component detectable by mosquitoes through olfaction. Understanding the genetic basis for attractiveness could create a more informed approach to repellent development.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Chemistry
Publisher:	Public Library of Science
ISSN:	1932-6203
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	21 November 2017
Date of Acceptance:	14 February 2015
Last Modified:	04 May 2023 14:44
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/106805

Citation Data

Cited 34 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item