Anastasia M W Cooper, Kaitlin Pfeiffer, Kathryn Reif, Kristopher Silver, Dana Mitzel
{"title":"AC-DC Electropenetrography for the Study of Probing and Ingestion Behaviors of Culex tarsalis Mosquitoes on Human Hands.","authors":"Anastasia M W Cooper, Kaitlin Pfeiffer, Kathryn Reif, Kristopher Silver, Dana Mitzel","doi":"10.3791/66877","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Mosquitoes transmit pathogens that negatively affect human and animal health. A greater understanding of their blood-feeding biology and interactions with hosts and pathogens could be exploited to develop new targets for controlling mosquito-borne diseases. Unfortunately, probing (i.e., biting) behaviors of mosquitoes are poorly understood because they occur inside host tissues. Here, a non-invasive procedure is described for using AC-DC electropenetrography (EPG) to indirectly visualize and quantify mosquito feeding behaviors by recording changes in electrical signals generated when probing and ingesting on human hands. Thin gold wires are attached to the mosquitoes using conductive silver glue and connected to the EPG instrument. The human host holds a substrate voltage probe in their hand. Probing of the host by the wired mosquito completes the electrical circuit, and electrical signals are recorded on a computer as \"waveforms\" that can then be measured and enumerated for analysis. This methodology has been used to characterize the probing and ingestion behaviors of Aedes aegypti and Culex tarsalis mosquitoes and can be applied to other mosquito species. EPG can be used to study the effects of pathogens, insecticides, and other factors on mosquito feeding behaviors.</p>","PeriodicalId":48787,"journal":{"name":"Jove-Journal of Visualized Experiments","volume":" 213","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2000,"publicationDate":"2024-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Jove-Journal of Visualized Experiments","FirstCategoryId":"103","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3791/66877","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Mosquitoes transmit pathogens that negatively affect human and animal health. A greater understanding of their blood-feeding biology and interactions with hosts and pathogens could be exploited to develop new targets for controlling mosquito-borne diseases. Unfortunately, probing (i.e., biting) behaviors of mosquitoes are poorly understood because they occur inside host tissues. Here, a non-invasive procedure is described for using AC-DC electropenetrography (EPG) to indirectly visualize and quantify mosquito feeding behaviors by recording changes in electrical signals generated when probing and ingesting on human hands. Thin gold wires are attached to the mosquitoes using conductive silver glue and connected to the EPG instrument. The human host holds a substrate voltage probe in their hand. Probing of the host by the wired mosquito completes the electrical circuit, and electrical signals are recorded on a computer as "waveforms" that can then be measured and enumerated for analysis. This methodology has been used to characterize the probing and ingestion behaviors of Aedes aegypti and Culex tarsalis mosquitoes and can be applied to other mosquito species. EPG can be used to study the effects of pathogens, insecticides, and other factors on mosquito feeding behaviors.
期刊介绍:
JoVE, the Journal of Visualized Experiments, is the world''s first peer reviewed scientific video journal. Established in 2006, JoVE is devoted to publishing scientific research in a visual format to help researchers overcome two of the biggest challenges facing the scientific research community today; poor reproducibility and the time and labor intensive nature of learning new experimental techniques.