New research: Mosquitoes’ fail-safe sense of smell gets them past repellents

Simply put, this specialised olfactory sense goes against the common olfactory understanding of ‘one neuron, one receptor’. In humans, for example, whenever a smell hits the nose, it triggers a sensory receptor after which corresponding neurons carry the message to the brain.

In mosquitoes, according to the study, different receptors can respond to different odours in the same neuron. So, even if one receptor family is impaired, it does not hamper the mosquito’s ability to find and feast on human blood.

Mosquitoes are intensely attracted to body odour and carbon dioxide, and research in the past has found that eliminating entire receptors in mosquitoes that are used for decoding carbon dioxide does not stop them  from finding their human prey.

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The latest study points to the reason why this might be happening. The research team behind the study said that they did not expect to discover this when they embarked on the research project. But the development is key to fighting back against these persistent human foes.

Mosquitoes transmit diseases like malaria, West Nile virus, Zika virus, and dengue among others. The researchers said they hoped that better understanding of the insects’ olfactory functions would  help humans design repellents that work better in keeping them at bay.