Mechanical and chemical cues regulating egg-laying in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes

Wednesday, November 16, 2022

10:40 AM – 11:10 AM PT

Location: Vancouver Convention Centre, Meeting Room 122

Presenting Author(s)

Benjamin Matthews (he/him/his)

Assistant Professor
The University of British Columbia
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Co-author(s)

AA

Aleksandra Anoshina

The University of British Columbia
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
LS

Lauren Semkow

The University of British Columbia
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
PS

Parsa Seyfourian

The University of British Columbia
Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
AZ

Annie Zeng

The University of British Columbia
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Egg-laying, or oviposition, is a critically important factor in the fitness of many animals, including disease-vectoring mosquitoes. Following a blood-meal, a female mosquito must decide where to deposit her eggs so as to maximize the survival of her offspring. In this talk, I will explore our lab’s work in understanding the egg-laying preferences of the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti. Using techniques including CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing, quantitative behaviour, and neural imaging, we describe two interacting sensory modalities that control egg-laying, mechanosensation (to evaluate surface texture) and contact chemosensation (to evaluate, for example, the salinity of the water). Furthermore, we describe our efforts to identify the molecular mechanisms guiding these behaviours with potential implications for mosquito control.