{"title":"The sensory arsenal mosquitoes use to find us.","authors":"Craig Montell","doi":"10.1016/j.pt.2025.05.004","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Female mosquitoes that home in on people for blood meals are exquisitely effective at finding us. This is because they are endowed with an uncanny ability to sense virtually every cue people provide. These include exhaled CO<sub>2</sub>, the image of the host, and volatile body odors, which can be detected at distances of multiple meters. When they traverse to under 1 m, they sense thermal infrared (IR). Within a few centimeters of a human, they detect convection heat and humidity emanating from skin. Upon landing, mosquitoes taste nonvolatile chemicals and sense conduction heat before electing to engorge on blood or fly away. This review focuses on the cellular and receptor mechanisms underlying the sensory detection mechanisms that mosquitoes use to home in on us.</p>","PeriodicalId":23327,"journal":{"name":"Trends in parasitology","volume":" ","pages":"591-602"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12352024/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Trends in parasitology","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pt.2025.05.004","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/5/29 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PARASITOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Female mosquitoes that home in on people for blood meals are exquisitely effective at finding us. This is because they are endowed with an uncanny ability to sense virtually every cue people provide. These include exhaled CO2, the image of the host, and volatile body odors, which can be detected at distances of multiple meters. When they traverse to under 1 m, they sense thermal infrared (IR). Within a few centimeters of a human, they detect convection heat and humidity emanating from skin. Upon landing, mosquitoes taste nonvolatile chemicals and sense conduction heat before electing to engorge on blood or fly away. This review focuses on the cellular and receptor mechanisms underlying the sensory detection mechanisms that mosquitoes use to home in on us.
期刊介绍:
Since its inception as Parasitology Today in 1985, Trends in Parasitology has evolved into a highly esteemed review journal of global significance, reflecting the importance of medical and veterinary parasites worldwide. The journal serves as a hub for communication among researchers across all disciplines of parasitology, encompassing endoparasites, ectoparasites, transmission vectors, and susceptible hosts.
Each monthly issue of Trends in Parasitology offers authoritative, cutting-edge, and yet accessible review articles, providing a balanced and comprehensive overview, along with opinion pieces offering personal and novel perspectives. Additionally, the journal publishes a variety of short articles designed to inform and stimulate thoughts in a lively and widely-accessible manner. These include Science & Society (discussing the interface between parasitology and the general public), Spotlight (highlighting recently published research articles), Forum (presenting single-point hypotheses), Parasite/Vector of the Month (featuring a modular display of the selected species), Letter (providing responses to recent articles in Trends in Parasitology), and Trendstalk (conducting interviews). Please note that the journal exclusively publishes literature reviews based on published data, with systematic reviews, meta-analysis, and unpublished primary research falling outside our scope.