ChikungunyaChikungunya, denguedengue, ZikaZika, malariamalaria. Mosquitoes can transmit a lot of diseases to us. Serious illnesses. Responsible for several hundred thousand deaths worldwide each year. So scientists are looking for solutions to protect us from their bites and/or control populations. Some have come up with complex strategies. From sterile or genetically modified male mosquitoes. Strategies whose effectiveness is difficult to demonstrate.
Brazil releases GMO mosquitoes carrying deadly gene into the wild
But biologists from the University of California at Santa Barbara (United States) may have just done so, by mattermattera discovery that could simplify everything.
The sound of beating wings or nothing
It all started from an observation. During the breeding season, male mosquitoes are attracted by the sound of the females' wingbeats. But maybe not only? To verify this, the researchers explain in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences how they gave birth to deaf male mosquitoes. By neutralizing a simple embarrassedembarrassed. And how they then observed that males, even when left in the presence of females for several days, no longer showed the slightest interest in reproduction.
The discovery is almost shocking as in most beings, mating behavior depends on a combination of several sensory signals. “The fact that removing just one sense can completely abolish mating is fascinating», Comments Emma Duge, co-author of the study, in a press release from the University of California. It must be said that male mosquitoes are those insects that have the greatest number of neuronesneurones hearing.
Deaf mosquitoes against epidemics
So, scientists may have their hands on a new way to bring mosquito populations below the critical threshold. By spreading deaf males in the wild. Males who will not breed with females. Which, let us remember, are those who bite us, precisely to feed their eggs.
