Hearing of malaria mosquitoes is modulated by a beta-adrenergic-like octopamine receptor which serves as insecticide target

Marcos Georgiades, Alexandros Alampounti, Jason Somers, Matthew P. Su, David A. Ellis, Judit Bagi, Daniela Terrazas-Duque, Scott Tytheridge, Watson Ntabaliba, Sarah Moore, Joerg T. Albert () and Marta Andrés ()
Additional contact information
Marcos Georgiades: University College London
Alexandros Alampounti: University College London
Jason Somers: University College London
Matthew P. Su: University College London
David A. Ellis: University College London
Judit Bagi: University College London
Daniela Terrazas-Duque: University College London
Scott Tytheridge: University College London
Watson Ntabaliba: Ifakara Health Institute
Sarah Moore: Ifakara Health Institute
Joerg T. Albert: University College London
Marta Andrés: University College London

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-20

Abstract: Abstract Malaria mosquitoes acoustically detect their mating partners within large swarms that form transiently at dusk. Indeed, male malaria mosquitoes preferably respond to female flight tones during swarm time. This phenomenon implies a sophisticated context- and time-dependent modulation of mosquito audition, the mechanisms of which are largely unknown. Using transcriptomics, we identify a complex network of candidate neuromodulators regulating mosquito hearing in the species Anopheles gambiae. Among them, octopamine stands out as an auditory modulator during swarm time. In-depth analysis of octopamine auditory function shows that it affects the mosquito ear on multiple levels: it modulates the tuning and stiffness of the flagellar sound receiver and controls the erection of antennal fibrillae. We show that two α- and β-adrenergic-like octopamine receptors drive octopamine’s auditory roles and demonstrate that the octopaminergic auditory control system can be targeted by insecticides. Our findings highlight octopamine as key for mosquito hearing and mating partner detection and as a potential novel target for mosquito control.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-40029-y Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-40029-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-40029-y

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().