Glowing sperm helps reveal the secrets of sex with mosquitoes

The female mosquito is transmit dengue fever and other diseases Research shows you're actually in control during sex¹ This challenges the long-held view that they are passive participants.

History of human infection revealed from mosquito blood

Lesley Vosshall, a neurobiologist at Rockefeller University in New York City, and her team found that male mosquitoes Aedes Although this genus appears to be constantly pursuing females, females typically mate only once in their lives. “The question was, how can a woman say no?” Vosshall said.

Researchers used fluorescent spermatozoa and careful camera work to help men collect their sperm. Aedes When the mosquitoes initiate contact, the female extends the tip of her genitals to several millimeters, or about the thickness of a human fingernail. If the female does not give this subtle but important signal, the male's efforts will fail and mating will not occur.

Mosquito sex lasts only a few seconds and usually takes place in the air. These factors, combined with the minute size of the reproductive organs, make it difficult to study exactly what's going on, Voshal said, adding that scientists studying mosquito reproduction in the past likely just shrugged their shoulders and said, “Oh, the males are in charge.” Her team's findings, which could have implications for the control of disease-carrying mosquitoes, are published today in the journal Science. current biology¹.

fluorescent sperm

to study complex mating processes Aedes aegypti The main mosquito species that transmits dengue fever – Vosshall and his colleagues first genetically engineered transgenic males to produce green or red fluorescent sperm. A few of each species were then placed in cages with females of the same species for seven days. When the females were dissected at the end of that period, more than 90% of them had only one color of sperm stored in their bodies, supporting the idea that they mate only once in their lives.

In the second set of experiments, the researchers used a sophisticated setup to film the mating process. Researchers glued female mosquitoes to metal pins so that they could move their wings and legs, but not fly away, like a trapeze artist on a tight rope. Free-flying males were then introduced into the cage and interactions between male and female reproductive organs were recorded in high resolution.

Lia Houli-Zevi, a researcher in Vosshall's lab, spent hundreds of hours watching the video frame by frame. She noticed that when males attempt to mate, they don't simply extend their reproductive organs (equivalent to penises) towards females. Instead, he first strikes the female's genitals with a drumstick-like structure called a gonostylis. When tapped, virgin females may extend the tips of their reproductive organs to enable copulation. However, Huli Zehvi noticed that non-virgin females usually keep their reproductive organs retracted, preventing further mating attempts.

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