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CO2 Receptors in Insects

By clock on December 14, 2006.

Identification Of Carbon Dioxide Receptors In Insects May Help Fight Infectious Disease:

Mosquitoes don't mind morning breath. They use the carbon dioxide people exhale as a way to identify a potential food source. But when they bite, they can pass on a number of dangerous infectious diseases, such as malaria, yellow fever, and West Nile encephalitis. Now, reporting in today's advance online publication in Nature, Leslie Vosshall's laboratory at Rockefeller University has identified the two molecular receptors in fruit flies that help these insects detect carbon dioxide. The findings could prove to be important against the fight against global infectious disease.

This is a very important finding. For context of the importance of CO2 in transmission of malaria, check out this.

Tags
animal behavior
insects
medicine
neuroscience

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