Predicting species abundance in the face of habitat loss
...ed by protozoa, rotifers, and mites. Pitcher plant mosquito larvae feed on bacteria, protozoa, and rotifers. O...so feed on rotifers as well as on younger, smaller mosquito larvae. Working with 50 pitcher plants in a bog in Vermont, Gotelli and Ellison subjected the pla...Compound eyes, evolutionary ties
...s (shown surrounding the fruit fly), bees and many mosquito species have the light-gathering units fused together into a "closed system." In a paper published in this week's early online edition of the journal Nature, the scientists report that one of three proteins needed to form these light gathering units...Sweet yet sophisticated: Honey bee genome lends insight into sociality, sensation and sex
...ey bee genome, far fewer than in fruit fly (68) or mosquito (76). "Bees have little need for gustatory receptors to locate and recognize food," Robertson says. "The larvae are sequestered in cells in the hive and are provisioned by adult nurse bees. And flowering plants have evolved mechanisms to attract a...New genetic analysis forces re-draw of insect family tree
...tamorphosis): fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster), mosquito (Anopheles gambiae), silk moth (Bombyx mori), flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum), honey bee (Apis mellifera) and sibling parasitic wasp species (Nasonia vitripennis and Nasonia giraulti). These insects represent the four major orders of holometabo...UC Davis scientists' groundbreaking research: Mate-attracting chemicals
...demy of Sciences. The project sprang from Leal's mosquito research. He develops and tests "stinky" chemical mixtures that attract female mosquitoes to traps; the mosquitoes are then tested for the presence of the West Nile virus. As mosquitoes do not utilize species-specific sex pheromones and are not as a...Insect population growth likely accelerated by warmer climate
...ght be a good thing, but enhanced growth rates for mosquito populations is much more dubious," said Frazier, who is lead author of the new research, published in the October edition of the journal The American Naturalist. Co-authors are Raymond Huey, a UW biology professor, and David Berrigan, a former UW ...Identification of carbon dioxide receptors in insects may help fight infectious disease
...the adult fly. "I went on to look at the malaria mosquito and found two homologues of the fly genes, GPRGR22 and GPRGR24. They are also co-expressed in the mosquitos maxillary palp, the appendage mosquitoes use to sense carbon dioxide," says Jones. Using genetic manipulation, Jones was able to show that b...Mayo researcher discovers target site for developing mosquito pesticides
...pesticides that are toxic to the Anopheles gambiae mosquito and other mosquito species. It would not affect humans and other mammals. If supported by further studies, the findings...Potential for malaria transmission higher than previously thought
...ximates transmission when counting infections from mosquito to mosquito, but overestimates it from human to hu...eneous biting amplifies transmission counting from mosquito to mosquito, but it can also dampen transmission counting from human to human. Humans who are bitten...Mosquito genes explain response to climate change
...plants and animals." The chromosomal map for the mosquito Wyeomyia smithii, which develop within the carnivo...id. Bradshaw and Holzapfel first showed that the mosquito has changed genetically in response to recent, rapid climate change and now uses shorter, more south...University of Arizona neurobiologist John Hildebrand elected to the National Academy of Sciences
..., "are essentially the same mechanisms that lead a mosquito to find humans, bite them and possibly transmit diseases, including malaria, West Nile virus and dengue. If you learn about the mechanisms that control insect behavior, you can intrude on that and possibly fool it." Of his election to the academy, ...Tips from the Journals of the American Society for Microbiology
... deaths annually, is transmitted to humans through mosquito bites. Emerging drug and insecticide resistance e... immune responses of mice preexposed to uninfected mosquito bites followed by bites from mosquitoes infected with the malaria parasite, Plasmodium spp. and thos...Genome of yellow fever/dengue fever mosquito sequenced
...irst draft of the genome sequence of Aedes aegypti mosquito by scientists led by Vishvanath Nene at The Instit...annotation which predicts numbers and locations of mosquito genes in the genome. In parallel to sequencing DNA in chromosomes, scientists have also sequenced la...UT Southwestern joins national clinical trial to uncover long-term effects of West Nile virus
...UT Southwestern. West Nile virus, transmitted by mosquito bite, arrived in the U.S. in 1999 and has become a...strain of the West Nile virus. For now, avoiding mosquito bites is the best prevention. Physicians recommend wearing insect repellant that contains the chemic...The insect vector always bites twice
...control strategies, such as the use of impregnated mosquito nets. Analysis of the host-vector relationship, up to now dealt with mainly from the angle of allergic responses to bites or in the search for veterinary vaccines, constitutes now an important research path for new surveillance and prevention strateg...Largest synthetic gene ever built offers insights into anti-malarial drug resistance
... When a malaria parasite is transmitted through a mosquito bite, the mosquito injects the parasite into skin or blood, which then travels to the liver within minutes, grows and d...Marine phytoplankton changes form to protect itself from different predators
...lthough it takes a while, its like changing from a mosquito to 76 blue whales or 3,000 bull elephants, Hay explained. Thats a pretty dramatic difference. Defensive responses are often seen in higher plants, but this is believed to be the first report of such a complex and species-specific response in marin...Revealed -- Mosquito genes that could be controlling the spread of killer viruses
...hat make up the immune system of the Aedes aegypti mosquito which transmits deadly viral diseases to humans ha... out today in Science. The immune system of this mosquito is of great importance as scientists believe it plays a key role in controlling the transmission of ...Key to tackling malaria may lie in bed nets for adults and older children
...population. Using recently-developed models of mosquito behaviour and mortality, researchers at the Ifakar...ath. The parasites can be retransmitted to another mosquito if it feeds on an infected person. The researchers showed that use of the nets can greatly reduce ...Malaria-resistant mosquitoes battle disease with 'molecular warhead'
..., a protein in the mosquitos immune system. When a mosquito is infected with a parasite that causes malaria, a...nus Plasmodium, which are spread to humans through mosquito bites. A mosquito picks up the parasite via infected human blood. The parasite then embeds itself in...