Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 367, Issue 6478, Pages 681-+Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.aay9847
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Funding
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases [F31A1133945, R01AI122802, R21 AI140018]
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke [2T32NS007292-31]
- National Institute of General Medicine [F32 GM113318]
- Swiss National Science Foundation [P2FRP3_168480]
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute [OPP1158190]
- Bil & Melinda Gates Foundation [OPP1158190]
- National Science Foundation [IOS 1557781]
- Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) [P2FRP3_168480] Funding Source: Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF)
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Mosquitoes transmit pathogens that kill >700,000 people annually. These insects use body heat to locate and feed on warm-blooded hosts, but the molecular basis of such behavior is unknown. Here, we identify ionotropic receptor IR21a, a receptor conserved throughout insects, as a key mediator of heat seeking in the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae. Although lr21a mediates heat avoidance in Drosophila, we find it drives heat seeking and heat-stimulated blood feeding in Anopheles. At a cellular level, Ir21a is essential for the detection of cooling, suggesting that during evolution mosquito heat seeking relied on cooling-mediated repulsion. Our data indicate that the evolution of blood feeding in Anopheles involves repurposing an ancestral thermoreceptor from non-blood-feeding Diptera.
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