Laboratory of Entomology, Wageningen University, PO Box 8031, 6700 EH Wageningen, The Netherlands.
J Med Entomol. 2010 May;47(3):338-44. doi: 10.1603/me09015.
Females of the African malaria vector, Anopheles gambiae Giles sensu stricto, use human volatiles to find their blood-host. Previous work has shown that ammonia, lactic acid, and aliphatic carboxylic acids significantly affect host orientation and attraction of this species. In the current study, these compounds were tested for their attractiveness relative to human emanations in vivo and in vitro. Emanations from a human hand, incubated sweat, and foot skin residues on a nylon sock were significantly attractive when tested against clean air. In a dual-choice test, foot skin residues were significantly more attractive than emanations from a human hand in vivo. Ammonia alone attracted more mosquitoes than fresh or incubated sweat. However, the odor of a human hand or of foot skin residues were more attractive than ammonia. A known attractive blend of ammonia with lactic acid and carboxylic acids was less effective than natural foot odorants. The results demonstrate that the synthetic blend based on skin odor is attractive for An. gambiae, but that in a choice situation in vitro natural skin odors are still preferred by the mosquito. Differences in volatile organic compound abundances between a worn sock and the synthetic blend may have resulted in stronger attraction to the sock. This suggests that candidate attractants should be evaluated with consideration of the strength of natural odorant sources. The data furthermore suggest that additional unidentified compounds from the human foot are involved in the host-seeking behavior of this mosquito species.
雌性非洲疟蚊（Anopheles gambiae Giles sensu stricto）利用人类挥发物寻找血源。先前的研究表明，氨、乳酸和直链羧酸显著影响该物种的宿主定向和吸引力。在当前的研究中，这些化合物在体内和体外相对于人体散发物的吸引力进行了测试。与清洁空气相比，从人手、孵育汗液和尼龙袜上的脚部皮肤残迹中散发的物质具有显著的吸引力。在双选择测试中，脚部皮肤残迹比体内人手散发的物质更具吸引力。氨单独比新鲜或孵育汗液吸引更多的蚊子。然而，人体手或脚部皮肤残迹的气味比氨更具吸引力。一种已知的氨与乳酸和羧酸的混合气味具有吸引力，但在体外的选择情况下，天然脚部气味仍然更受蚊子的欢迎。磨损的袜子和合成混合物之间挥发性有机化合物丰度的差异可能导致对袜子的吸引力更强。这表明候选引诱剂的评估应考虑到天然气味源的强度。此外，这些数据表明，来自人体脚部的其他未被识别的化合物也参与了这种蚊子的宿主寻找行为。
