ArticleNature microbiology2025
Engineered Metarhizium fungi produce longifolene to attract and kill mosquitoes.
Article in Nature microbiology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Longifolene enhances Beauveria bassiana bait by counteracting repellency in the fungus-growing termite Odontotermes formosanus.Pest management science · 2026Article
- Diversity of Soil Fungi, Entomopathogenic Fungi and Their Driving Factors in the Eastern Tanggula Mountains in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.Microorganisms · 2026Article
- Making scents of mosquito lures: semiochemical attractants for adult mosquitoes.Parasites & vectors · 2026Review
- Exploring the Olfactory Recognition ofInsects · 2026Article
- Scent and adhesion drive insect dispersal of environmental yeast.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Integrated strategies for mosquito-borne disease control: a comprehensive review with emphasis on repellents and China's practices.Parasites & vectors · 2026Review
- ExploringMicrobiology (Reading, England) · 2026Review
- The Volatilomes ofMycobiology · 2026Review
- Entomopathogenic fungi bait and kill insects with longifolene.Nature microbiology · 2025Article
- Identified receptors shed light on Epstein-Barr virus infection.Nature microbiology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
23 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Chemical insecticides have been the primary method of mosquito control, but in recent years, mosquitoes have become resistant to these compounds. Metarhizium fungi are emerging as promising alternatives and can kill mosquitoes with a small number of spores. It was previously shown that caterpillars affected by fungal infections can attract mosquitoes. However, the mechanisms and potential applications of this attraction are lacking. Here we show that Metarhizium-colonized insect cadavers release the volatile longifolene to attract and infect healthy insects, facilitating spore dispersal. We identified the responsible odorant receptors in Drosophila melanogaster and Aedes albopictus. The virulent mosquito pathogen Metarhizium pingshaense was engineered to express pine longifolene synthase to produce a large amount of longifolene on media. The transgenic spores effectively attracted and killed male and female A. albopictus, Anopheles sinensis and Culex pipiens. Attraction of wild-caught mosquitoes was not impacted by human presence, but mosquito-attracting flowering plants competed with transgenic M. pingshaense for attractiveness, although mortality remained over 90%. This study uncovered an active spore dispersal mechanism in broad-host-range entomopathogenic Metarhizium, enhancing mosquito control efficacy.
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Registered trials
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