‘Lights! Action! Mosquito!: Photic manipulation of anopheline behaviour’
Associate Professor Giles Duffield - University of Notre Dame
Venues: Cairns B001-031video linked to Townsville room 48.202
Mosquitoes exhibit profound changes in their physiology and behavior as a function of the time of the day. Twenty-four hour rhythmic coordination of activities such as host-seeking, blood feeding, flight activity and mating, are controlled in part by an internal circadian clock. Photic cues also play an important role in shaping these rhythms as well as directly inducing or suppressing behaviors. We are using molecular, physiological and behavioral approaches to understand the molecular basis of these rhythms in the Anopheles gambaie malaria mosquito, and specifically focusing on metabolic detoxification/insecticide resistance, and host-seeking sensory systems of vision and olfaction. I will present recent work from the laboratory on the use of light to manipulate An. gambiae biting and flight activity behavior, and discuss how this might be used as a method to control malaria transmission.