Mosquitoes inherit resistance to the most common repellent used to defend ourselves from their bites, the insecticide DEET (N, N-diethylmetatoluamide), according to a study by British and Swedish scientists published today in the journal PNAS . In addition, this resistance is transmitted at high speed from generation to generation in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, since it depends on a single dominant gene, so it is enough to inherit it from a parent for the insect to be immune to the repellent.
To this must be added that researchers have found the sensory mechanism that generates insensitivity to DEET, a single neuron located in the mosquito's antenna that responds to the repellent in different ways depending on the dose. " What remains to be ascertained is a relationship between the effects on the antenna and the insensitivity to DEET, " says Leslie Vosshall of New York University.
Aedes aegypti is a species of mosquito of African origin, but currently widely spread throughout the American continent, which transmits yellow fever and dengue .
