title: The cation channel TRPA1 tunes mosquito thermotaxis to host temperatures.
abstract: While most animals thermotax only to regulate their temperature, female mosquitoes are attracted to human body heat during pursuit of a blood meal. Here we elucidate the basic rules of Aedes aegypti thermotaxis and test the function of candidate thermoreceptors in this important behavior. We show that host-seeking mosquitoes are maximally attracted to thermal stimuli approximating host body temperatures, seeking relative warmth while avoiding both relative cool and stimuli exceeding host body temperature. We found that the cation channel TRPA1, in addition to playing a conserved role in thermoregulation and chemosensation, is required for this specialized host-selective thermotaxis in mosquitoes. During host-seeking, AaegTRPA1(-/-) mutants failed to avoid stimuli exceeding host temperature, and were unable to discriminate between host-temperature and high-temperature stimuli. TRPA1-dependent tuning of thermotaxis is likely critical for mosquitoes host-seeking in a complex thermal environment in which humans are warmer than ambient air, but cooler than surrounding sun-warmed surfaces.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, United States.
authors.forename: Román A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Corfas
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, United States.|Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Rockefeller University, New York, United States.
authors.forename: Leslie B
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6060-8099
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Vosshall
mesh_terms: D000330:Aedes / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D017353:Gene Deletion; D006801:Humans; D008124:Locomotion; D013696:Temperature; D050051:Transient Receptor Potential Channels / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D050051:Transient Receptor Potential Channels
keywords: Aedes aegypti; behavior; mosquito; neuroscience