Have you ever wondered why mosquitos prefer human blood over that of other animals? The experts at Princeton University in the United States believe it has a lot to do with our ‘citrusy’ aroma. According to research published in the journal Nature, mosquitoes evolved to attack people entirely by depending on odour molecules that differ from those generated by other organisms in the same habitat.
According to The Independent, these Aedes aegypti mosquitos, which operate as transmitters for illnesses such as Zika, dengue, and yellow fever, prefer human odour over animal odour. The researchers arrived at this result after analysing mosquito brains at high resolution to determine how they would react to various types of fragrance. To do this, the mosquitos were genetically modified to have their brains light up when they were active and to be exposed to various types of fragrances.
Scientists gathered hair, fur, and wool samples, as well as odours from 16 humans, two rats, two guinea pigs, two quails, one sheep, and four dogs, to see how these blood-sucking flying insects distinguished between animal and human scents. They then gathered human and animal odours non-destructively and devised a technique that allowed them to direct human odour at the mosquitoes in the imaging setup, according to the UK-based daily.
The scientists discovered that mosquitoes were only using two of their 60 glomeruli (nerve centres) to detect the human odour. According to the study, mosquitoes use these brain centres to identify two compounds – decanal and undecanal – that have a somewhat orangey, lemony fragrance and are concentrated in human odour.
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