Host plant forensics and olfactory-based detection in Afro-tropical mosquito disease vectors.

ABSTRACT: The global spread of vector-borne diseases remains a worrying public health threat, raising the need for development of new combat strategies for vector control. Knowledge of vector ecology can be exploited in this regard, including plant feeding; a critical resource that mosquitoes of both sexes rely on for survival and other metabolic processes. However, the identity of plant species mosquitoes feed on in nature remains largely unknown. By testing the hypothesis about selectivity in plant feeding, we employed a DNA-based approach targeting trnH-psbA and matK genes and identified host plants of field-collected Afro-tropical mosquito vectors of dengue, Rift Valley fever and malaria being among the most important mosquito-borne diseases in East Africa. These included three plant species for

SUBMITTER: Nyasembe VO 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5834208 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature