1. Modulation of Host Learning in Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes
- Author
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Jay Z. Parrish, Gabriella H. Wolff, Clément Vinauger, Michael H. Dickinson, Chloé Lahondère, Omar S. Akbari, Jessica E. Liaw, Jeffrey A. Riffell, and Lauren T. Locke
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Dopamine ,Conditioning, Classical ,Insect ,Medical and Health Sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Aedes aegypti ,Aedes ,CRISPR ,media_common ,0303 health sciences ,education.field_of_study ,biology ,Ecology ,Vertebrate ,Biological Sciences ,3. Good health ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Infectious Diseases ,disease vector ,neuromodulation ,Female ,Olfactory Learning ,General Agricultural and Biological Sciences ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Population ,Zoology ,mosquito ,aversive conditioning ,Basic Behavioral and Social Science ,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology ,03 medical and health sciences ,biology.animal ,parasitic diseases ,Behavioral and Social Science ,medicine ,Avoidance Learning ,olfactory learning ,Animals ,Humans ,education ,030304 developmental biology ,Host (biology) ,fungi ,Psychology and Cognitive Sciences ,Neurosciences ,Feeding Behavior ,biology.organism_classification ,Olfactory Perception ,Classical ,Rats ,Vector-Borne Diseases ,030104 developmental biology ,Biting ,Odorants ,Antennal lobe ,Neuroscience ,Chickens ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Conditioning ,Developmental Biology - Abstract
How mosquitoes determine which individuals to bite has important epidemiological consequences. This choice is not random; most mosquitoes specialize in one or a few vertebrate host species, and some individuals in a host population are preferred over others. Mosquitoes will also blood feed from other hosts when their preferred is no longer abundant, but the mechanisms mediating these shifts between hosts, and preferences for certain individuals within a host species, remain unclear. Here, we show that olfactory learning may contribute to Aedes aegypti mosquito biting preferences and host shifts. Training and testing to scents of humans and other host species showed that mosquitoes can aversively learn the scent of specific humans and single odorants and learn to avoid the scent of rats (but not chickens). Using pharmacological interventions, RNAi, and CRISPR gene editing, we found that modification of the dopamine-1 receptor suppressed their learning abilities. We further show through combined electrophysiological and behavioral recordings from tethered flying mosquitoes that these odors evoke changes in both behavior and antennal lobe (AL) neuronal responses and that dopamine strongly modulates odor-evoked responses in AL neurons. Not only do these results provide direct experimental evidence that olfactory learning in mosquitoes canplay an epidemiological role, but collectively, they also provide neuroanatomical and functional demonstration of the role of dopamine in mediating this learning-induced plasticity, for the first time in a disease vector insect.
- Published
- 2017