Team:Queens Canada/Project/Overview

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QGEM 2013 PRESENTS:

REPEL

OVERVIEW

ATTRACT

Biosynthesis and Breakdown of Human Odour Compounds for the Behavioural Manipulation of Malarial Mosquitoes

Mosquitoes can serve as vectors for a variety of diseases in endemic areas, including malaria, West Nile and dengue fever. The World Health Organization reported that there were 219 million cases of malaria in 2010 alone, 660,000 of which resulted in death. Mosquitoes have been found to use several airborne chemical cues to locate a blood-meal, which act as ligands for its olfactory receptors. These chemical cues include a host’s skin emanations, exhaled air, and urine. In particular, the African mosquito Anopheles gambiae was shown to be four times more attracted to foot odour when infected with the malarial parasite, Plasmodium falciparum (Zwiebel and Takken, 2011). In our project, we chose to focus on isovaleric acid, which is a key component of foot odour and is produced by Staphylococcus epidermidis, a resident species of normal cutaneous flora (citation).

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-         <span class="black">Using </span><span class="rose">Foot Odour </span><span class="black">in the Fight Against </span><span class="rose">Malaria</span>
+         <span class="black">Biosynthesis and Breakdown of </span><span class="rose">Human Odour Compounds </span><span class="black">for the Behavioural Manipulation of </span><span class="rose">Malarial Mosquitoes</span>
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-        The drone of the mosquito is a common sound. On camping trips it serves as a herald of itchy swells and signals that it is time to break out the bug spray. In many other parts of the world however, this sound means something completely different. It signals the presence of a vector for diseases such as malaria, West Nile and dengue fever. Mosquitoes are responsible for the widespread of these sicknesses; there were 219 million cases of malaria in 2010 alone, 660,000 of which resulted in death. Mosquitoes have been found to use several air-bourne chemical cues to locate a blood-meal, which act as ligands for its odorant receptors. These include a host’s skin emanations, exhaled air, and urine. The host’s foot odour in particular (Zwiebel and Takken, 2011), one key component of which is isovaleric acid produced by <i>Staphylococcus epidermidis</i>, a resident species of normal cutaneous flora (citation).
+       Mosquitoes can serve as vectors for a variety of diseases in endemic areas, including malaria, West Nile and dengue fever. The World Health Organization reported that there were 219 million cases of malaria in 2010 alone, 660,000 of which resulted in death. Mosquitoes have been found to use several airborne chemical cues to locate a blood-meal, which act as ligands for its olfactory receptors. These chemical cues include a host’s skin emanations, exhaled air, and urine. In particular, the African mosquito <i>Anopheles gambiae</i> was shown to be four times more attracted to foot odour when infected with the malarial parasite, <i>Plasmodium falciparum</i> (Zwiebel and Takken, 2011). In our project, we chose to focus on isovaleric acid, which is a key component of foot odour and is produced by <i>Staphylococcus epidermidis</i>, a resident species of normal cutaneous flora (citation).
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