Much like your family dog, the mosquito's sense of smell plays heavily into the search for food. Next time you see one of the little ladies on your arm sucking away your hard-earned blood, remember that they had to sniff you out before they could eat you.
Well, like you, scientists don't much appreciate being eaten by mosquitoes either, and the current thinking is ... what if we could just remove their sense of smell?
Favorite Food: Humans
No doubt you recognize the smell of your favorite food from miles away. I happen to love pizza, and I could track down a steaming pie with a blind fold on and ear plugs. Perhaps you have a taste for fresh-baked cookies, or hamburgers. Whatever the case may be, bugs have preferences too. A particular species of mosquito, Aedes aegypti, prefers human blood over any other animal's. That preference makes A. aegypti a real problem, because it carries human diseases from person to person; terrible diseases like dengue fever, malaria, and yellow fever.Plug that Nose and Hide
A team of scientists from The Rockefeller University and the University of California recently presented a clever solution involving genetic engineering. Apparently, a gene in A. aegypti called the "Orco" gene, is responsible for the bug's preference for human smell. If the bug has a mutation in this gene, then generally, humans become "invisible" (at least smell-wise) to the little critters. So, the simple idea is to put mutations in the orco gene on purpose.Now the system isn't perfect ... the bug's also use carbon dioxide (CO2) to sense mammals, and if they sense the carbon dioxide from your breath, that re-activates their sense of smell, so that they can smell you again, and want to eat your blood again. But it's a start. Maybe next time you're in a cloud of mosquitoes, try not to breath!
To Learn More
New York Times ArticleDeGennaro et al research article in Nature
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