中英对照：科学家测出按蚊的气味感知系统

　　Scientists have mapped a sensory organ that the principal malaria-carrying mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, uses to hunt down humans.

　　They hope this will help in developing better mosquito attractants that will divert them away from humans and reduce the threat of malaria infection.

　　The findings were published online this week (30 August) in Current Biology.

　　The sensory organ the scientists investigated — the maxillary palp — is one of the three structures extending from the mosquito's head that together provide the mosquito with a sense of smell and taste.

　　The researchers believe that the mosquito uses the maxillary palp for long range detection of prey. It uses its proboscis for sensing at close range.

　　Previous studies on the Aedes aeqypti mosquito, the carrier of dengue and yellow fever, had shown that the maxillary palp contains receptor cells sensitive to carbon dioxide and octenol, chemical signals emitted by humans.

　　The new research shows that the maxillary palp of A. gambiae is also sensitive to these chemicals, but it contains different receptor cells that make this mosquito sensitive to other human-specific compounds as well.

　　Lead author Laurence Zwiebel, professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt University in the United States, told SciDev.Net that they are now in the process of designing new mosquito attractants that will target receptors in A. gambiae's sensory system. These attractants would lure the mosquito into traps, away from their human targets.

　　Zambia's National Malaria Control Centre coordinator, Elizabeth Chizema, told SciDev.Net, "Any new method that can be used to eliminate malaria is welcome because malaria remains a serious killer disease in Zambia and elsewhere."

　　The research is part of the Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative to develop a chemical strategy to prevent the spread of malaria by A. gambiae.

　　The study involved collaboration of researchers from the Ifakara Health Research and Development Centre in Tanzania, the Medical Research Council Laboratories in Gambia, Vanderbilt and Yale Universities in the United States and Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

　　科学家测出按蚊的气味感知系统

　　科学家们测出了冈比亚按蚊这种疟疾主要传媒的一个感觉器官的结构，按蚊使用这个器官来追踪人类。他们希望这项研究将有助于开发更好的蚊子引诱剂，把它们从人类身边引开，并减少疟疾感染的威胁。

　　他们的发现本周（8月30日）发表在了《当代生物学》杂志的网站上。

　　科学家研究的这种感觉器官――下颚须――是从蚊子的头部伸出的三个结构之一，它们共同为蚊子提供嗅觉和味觉的信息。

　　这组科学家相信蚊子使用下颚须探测远距离的猎物。它使用喙感知近距离的猎物。

　　此前对埃及伊蚊的研究表明下颚须拥有对二氧化碳和八烯醇（人体释放的一种化学信号）敏感的受体细胞。埃及伊蚊是登革热和黄热病的传播者。

　　这项新的研究表明冈比亚按蚊的下颚须也对这些化学物质敏感，但是它含有不同的受体细胞，让这种蚊子也对人类独有的其它化合物敏感。

　　该论文的主要作者、美国范德比尔特大学的生物学教授Laurence Zwiebel告诉本网站说，他们目前正在针对冈比亚按蚊的感受系统设计新的蚊子引诱剂。这些引诱剂将把蚊子引入陷阱，让它们远离人类目标。

　　赞比亚国立疟疾控制中心的协调员Elizabeth Chizema告诉本网站说：“任何可以用于消灭疟疾的新方法都受到欢迎，因为疟疾仍然是赞比亚等地的严重疾病”。

　　该项研究是全球卫生重大挑战项目子项目的组成部分。该子项目旨在开发一种化学策略防止冈比亚按蚊传播疟疾。

　　来自坦桑尼亚Ifakara卫生研发中心、冈比亚医学研究理事会实验室、美国范德比尔特大学和耶鲁大学、荷兰瓦赫宁根大学的科学家共同参与了该研究。（Michael Malakata）

　　本文由科学与发展网络(SciDev.Net)独家提供。