Department of Entomology, Cornell University, 3131 Comstock Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, 423 Biotechnology Building, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Curr Biol. 2019 Mar 18;29(6):R196-R197. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.02.005.
Aedes aegypti mosquitoes transmit pathogens such as yellow fever, dengue, Zika, and chikungunya viruses to millions of human hosts annually [1]. As such, understanding Ae. aegypti courtship and mating biology could prove crucial to the success of disease control efforts that target reproduction. Potentially to communicate reproductive fitness [2,3], mosquito males and females harmonize their flight tones prior to mating in a behavior known as harmonic convergence (HC) [4]. Furthermore, after mating or treatment with extracts from male accessory glands (MAG), which make seminal fluid molecules, female Ae. aegypti become resistant, or refractory, to re-mating [5]. To test the hypothesis that mating and MAG fluids inhibit a female's ability to induce HC in males, we recorded audio of pre-copulatory flight interactions between virgin males and either virgin, mated, or MAG extract-injected females and analyzed these recordings for the presence or absence of HC. We found that mating and MAG extract lower HC occurrence by 53% compared with all other controls. Our results further suggest that mating may inhibit HC indirectly via the broader range of MAG-induced female refractory mating behaviors. Together, our results demonstrate an important new role for MAG molecules in mediating female post-mating behavior.
埃及伊蚊传播黄热病、登革热、寨卡和基孔肯雅热等病原体，每年为数百万人类宿主传播病原体[1]。因此，了解埃及伊蚊求偶和交配生物学可能对以生殖为目标的疾病控制工作的成功至关重要。雄蚊和雌蚊在交配前可能通过协调它们的飞行音调来潜在地传达生殖适应性[2,3]，这种行为被称为“和声协同”（HC）[4]。此外，在交配或用雄附腺（MAG）提取物处理后，雄附腺产生精液分子，雌性埃及伊蚊对再交配变得有抗性或不敏感[5]。为了检验交配和 MAG 液体会抑制雌性诱导雄性 HC 的能力的假设，我们记录了处女雄蚊与处女、交配或 MAG 提取物注射的雌蚊之间交配前的飞行相互作用的音频，并对这些记录进行了分析，以确定 HC 是否存在。我们发现，与所有其他对照相比，交配和 MAG 提取物使 HC 的发生降低了 53%。我们的结果进一步表明，交配可能通过更广泛的 MAG 诱导的雌性不敏感交配行为间接抑制 HC。总之，我们的结果表明 MAG 分子在介导雌性交配后行为方面发挥了重要的新作用。
