If they have to choose between biting a person or sucking the blood of another vertebrate, female mosquitoes always prefer humans , according to a study published in Nature . These insects, which detect their prey by the CO2 produced in their breath, body heat and odor, possess a gene called 'orc' that is responsible for both the predilection for human odor and the repulsion caused by mosquitoes. with DEET . This has been demonstrated by scientists from the universities of Rockefeller and California (USA), who used nucleases with a structure called zinc fingers to develop for the first time a mosquito without the orc gene.
Unlike wild mosquitoes, these mutants are just as attracted to an arm with a repellent as to another without it. Only when they landed on the skin and came into contact with the compound did the product repel them and they did not sting; While normal mosquitoes didn't even come close because they smelled DEET from afar, according to the SINC agency.
The experiments were carried out with the Aedes aegypti mosquito, a dangerous transmitter of dengue and yellow fever that has evolved a preference for humans. "Our work provides important information to create tools that prevent the strong attraction of mosquitoes to people," says Vosshall.
