Title: “Up Close and Personal: Heat and humidity detectors for mosquito host-seeking and egg-laying behaviors.”
Speaker: Willem Laursen (University of Washington)
Summary: Mosquitoes—and
the diseases they transmit—are long-standing scourges of humanity.
Female mosquitoes utilize multiple host-associated cues to efficiently
home in on the sources of the blood they use to nourish their developing
eggs. From meters away, they detect elevations in CO2, odors, and
visual cues. At close range, increased temperature and humidity
associated with the ~3cm “boundary layer” of warm, moist air surrounding
the host provide host proximity information and influence landing
decisions. Because mosquito larvae are aquatic, humidity cues take on
additional significance for post-blood feeding reproductive behaviors by
signaling the presence of standing water for egg laying. Although long
appreciated as attractive cues, the molecular mechanisms underlying
mosquito heat and humidity seeking have remained elusive. In this talk, I
will discuss basic mosquito rearing methods as well as the cutting-edge
genetic manipulation techniques we recently leveraged together with
physiological and behavioral assays to identify and characterize the
thermosensory and hygrosensory (humidity detection) systems that support
the blood-thirsty behaviors of different subfamilies of vector
mosquitoes.
NOTICE: We will be holding hybrid meetings to accommodate COVID-19 precautions and audience members from around the world.
For those able to attend, we
will have an informal dinner at 6:00 pm at Cambridge Common Restaurant
with the speaker, followed by our formal meeting (7:30 - 9:00 pm) in
room MCZ101 of the Museum of Comparative Zoology (there will be signs to
help direct). The meeting will begin with club announcements, followed
by a 60-minute presentation by the invited speaker and Q&A. Membership is open to amateur and professional entomologists. Welcome!