ArticleNature ecology & evolution2020
Male swarming aggregation pheromones increase female attraction and mating success among multiple African malaria vector mosquito species.
Article in Nature ecology & evolution, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
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25 citing papers in PubMed, 56 citations in OpenAlex.
- Making scents of mosquito lures: semiochemical attractants for adult mosquitoes.Parasites & vectors · 2026Review
- Effects of chilling, fluorescent dust marking, and X-ray irradiation on the quality of male Anopheles arabiensis for sterile insect technique applications.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Lipid Metabolism in Insect Vectors of Diseases.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Olfactory gene dynamics in invasive Indian and non-invasive African malaria vectors at the crossroads of development, infection and resistance.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Article
- An expanded neurogenetic toolkit to decode olfaction in the African malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae.Cell reports methods · 2024Article
- Karyotypic stasis and swarming influenced the evolution of viral tolerance in a species-rich bat radiation.Cell genomics · 2024Article
- Female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes use communal cues to manage population density at breeding sites.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Impact of the microbiome on mosquito-borne diseases.Protein & cell · 2023Review
- Data-driven networking of global transcriptomics and male sexual development in the main malaria vector, Anopheles funestus.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Article
- Combinatorial encoding of odors in the mosquito antennal lobe.Nature communications · 2023Article
- The sex pheromone heptacosane enhances the mating competitiveness of sterile Aedes aegypti males.Parasites & vectors · 2023Article
- Traveling across Life Sciences with Acetophenone-A Simple Ketone That Has Special Multipurpose Missions.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- No evidence for long-range male sex pheromones in two malaria mosquitoes.Nature ecology & evolution · 2022Article
- Mosquito Olfactory Response Ensemble enables pattern discovery by curating a behavioral and electrophysiological response database.iScience · 2022Article
- Swarming Behavior in Anopheles gambiae (sensu lato): Current Knowledge and Future Outlook.Journal of medical entomology · 2022Review
- Wild populations of malaria vectors can mate both inside and outside human dwellings.Parasites & vectors · 2021Article
- Cuticular hydrocarbons are associated with mating success and insecticide resistance in malaria vectors.Communications biology · 2021Article
- The Expression of Chemosensory Genes in Male Maxillary Palps of Anopheles coluzzii (Diptera: Culicidae) and An. quadriannulatus.Journal of medical entomology · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 5 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Accumulating behavioural data indicate that aggregation pheromones may mediate the formation and maintenance of mosquito swarms. However, chemical cues possibly luring mosquitoes to swarms have not been adequately investigated, and the likely molecular incitants of these complex reproductive behaviours remain unknown. Here we show that males of the important malaria vector species Anopheles arabiensis and An. gambiae produce and release aggregation pheromones that attract individuals to the swarm and enhance mating success. We found that males of both species released significantly higher amounts of 3-hydroxy-2-butanone (acetoin), 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one (sulcatone), octanal, nonanal and decanal during swarming in the laboratory. Feeding males with stable-isotope-labelled glucose revealed that the males produced these five compounds. A blend composed of synthetic analogues to these swarming odours proved highly attractive to virgin males and females of both species under laboratory conditions and substantially increased mating in five African malaria vectors (An. gambiae, An. coluzzii, An. arabiensis, An. merus and An. funestus) in semi-field experiments. Our results not only narrow a conspicuous gap in understanding a vital aspect of the chemical ecology of male mosquitoes but also demonstrate fundamental roles of rhythmic and metabolic genes in the physiology and behavioural regulation of these vectors. These identified aggregation pheromones have great potential for exploitation against these highly dangerous insects. Manipulating such pheromones could increase the efficacy of malaria-vector control programmes.
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