美国洛克菲勒大学Meg A. Younger研究团队揭示蚊子的非经典气味编码。2022年8月18日出版的《细胞》杂志发表了这项成果。

研究人员发现埃及伊蚊使用了一种不同的组织原则，许多神经元共同表达多个化学感觉受体基因。体内电生理学表明，蚊子嗅觉神经元广泛的配体敏感性取决于这种非经典的共表达。一个神经元共同表达多种化学感觉受体的嗅觉系统所提供的冗余可能会增加蚊子嗅觉系统的稳健性，并解释了为什么人们长期以来无法破坏蚊子对人类的感知。

据悉，埃及伊蚊是一个顽固的人类敌人，当它们吸食人血时传播包括登革热在内的虫媒病毒。蚊子被体味和二氧化碳强烈吸引，它们利用由三个大型多基因家族编码的电离化学感觉受体来探测这些气味。破坏嗅觉系统的基因突变对人类的吸引力影响不大，这表明气味编码的冗余性。经典的观点是，嗅觉感觉神经元各自表达一个化学感觉受体，该受体决定了其配体的选择性。

附：英文原文

Title: Non-canonical odor coding in the mosquito

Author: Margaret Herre, Olivia V. Goldman, Tzu-Chiao Lu, Gabriela Caballero-Vidal, Yanyan Qi, Zachary N. Gilbert, Zhongyan Gong, Takeshi Morita, Saher Rahiel, Majid Ghaninia, Rickard Ignell, Benjamin J. Matthews, Hongjie Li, Leslie B. Vosshall, Meg A. Younger

Issue&Volume: 2022/08/18

Abstract: Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are a persistent human foe, transmitting arboviruses including dengue when they feed on human blood. Mosquitoes are intensely attracted to body odor and carbon dioxide, which they detect using ionotropic chemosensory receptors encoded by three large multi-gene families. Genetic mutations that disrupt the olfactory system have modest effects on human attraction, suggesting redundancy in odor coding. The canonical view is that olfactory sensory neurons each express a single chemosensory receptor that defines its ligand selectivity. We discovered that Ae. aegypti uses a different organizational principle, with many neurons co-expressing multiple chemosensory receptor genes. In vivo electrophysiology demonstrates that the broad ligand-sensitivity of mosquito olfactory neurons depends on this non-canonical co-expression. The redundancy afforded by an olfactory system in which neurons co-express multiple chemosensory receptors may increase the robustness of the mosquito olfactory system and explain our long-standing inability to disrupt the detection of humans by mosquitoes.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2022.07.024

Source: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(22)00927-8