Paskewitz Susan, Irwin Patrick, Konwinski Nic, Larson Scott
Department of Entomology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
Insects. 2018 Sep 28;9(4):129. doi: 10.3390/insects9040129.
Humans vary in attractiveness to mosquitoes, a phenomenon that is largely attributed to differences in physical cues such as heat and volatile odors emanating from breath and skin. Diet can change human odors but whether specific dietary components alter host attractiveness is largely unexplored. We identified bananas as a target for study following a survey of the internet for advice on avoiding mosquito bites. Human attractiveness to Liston was measured using a glass vial bioassay where mosquito contacts were measured before and 1⁻3 h after ingestion of bananas or grapes. Consumption of grapes had no effect on the number of contacts but banana ingestion resulted in a significant increase in the overall number of contacts in spite of individual variation that included some subjects who showed no effect or decreases in contacts. Further tests with a single volunteer showed that the effect was repeatable and consistent across 15 trials. The magnitude of the increase was not affected by the number of bananas eaten. Increased contact counts after banana ingestion were also observed when Giles was tested. These results support the hypothesis that diet plays an important role in mediating host attractiveness to anopheline mosquitoes.
人类对蚊子的吸引力各不相同，这种现象很大程度上归因于诸如热量以及从呼吸和皮肤散发的挥发性气味等物理线索的差异。饮食会改变人类气味，但特定饮食成分是否会改变宿主的吸引力在很大程度上尚未得到探索。在对互联网上关于避免蚊虫叮咬的建议进行调查后，我们确定香蕉为研究对象。使用玻璃小瓶生物测定法测量人类对利斯顿（Liston）蚊子的吸引力，在摄入香蕉或葡萄之前以及之后1至3小时测量蚊子的接触情况。食用葡萄对接触次数没有影响，但尽管存在个体差异，包括一些接触次数没有变化或减少的受试者，摄入香蕉后接触的总数仍显著增加。对一名志愿者进行的进一步测试表明，这种效应在15次试验中是可重复且一致的。增加的幅度不受食用香蕉数量的影响。在对吉尔斯（Giles）蚊子进行测试时，也观察到摄入香蕉后接触次数增加。这些结果支持了这样一种假设，即饮食在介导宿主对按蚊的吸引力方面起着重要作用。
