Malaria Mosquitoes Follow Foot Smells
脚部有气味容易招蚊子
African
Anopheles mosquitoes find us by our carbon-dioxide-rich exhalation. But when they get close they turn away from our heads and dive for our feet—apparently their preferred
snack spot.
非洲疟蚊通过我们富含二氧化碳的呼出物找到我们，它们不叮咬我们的头部，转而去叮咬我们的脚，显然那儿才是它们觅食的最佳场所。
Biologist Remco Suer believes he’s figured out the mosquito behavior, for his
doctoral thesis at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. And the answer might help in the fight against
malaria.
生物学家瑞姆科休尔就读于荷兰瓦赫宁根大学，他在博士论文中称他已经研究出了疟蚊的行为特性。休尔的研究成果对于对抗疟疾可能会有帮助。
Previous research identified
odors produced by 10 bacteria that live on human feet and that, in
combination, are attractive to mosquitoes at close range. Suer's work shows that nine out of 10 of these odors are picked up by
olfactory neurons under hair-like structures on the mosquitoes' mouthparts. Right nearby are some other key neurons—that recognize our CO2 from further away.
早期研究发现，人们脚部滋生的10种细菌发出的臭味共同作用会吸引附近的蚊子。休尔的研究表明这10种细菌中有9种是由蚊子口器上毛发状结构的嗅觉神经元发觉的。这些嗅觉神经旁边就是能够发觉远距离之外二氧化碳的关键神经元。
Suer discovered that five different bacteria scents, when isolated from the mix, actually block those CO2 neurons from doing their job. So if the bacterial odor molecule is present, the CO2 sniffers turn off, presumably to allow the mosquito to concentrate on the close-range foot target.
休尔发现5种不同的细菌气味在单独作用时，是能够对蚊子的二氧化碳神经元起阻碍作用的。因此，假如有细菌气味分子在，那么蚊子的二氧化碳嗅探器就无法起作用，那么蚊子就只能在它附近觅食了。
Suer imagines traps baited with these feet bacteria to attract mosquitoes and catch them before they can bite. It’s the next best thing to stepping on them.
休尔还设想利用这些脚部细菌设置陷阱，先引诱蚊子过来，再在它们叮咬之前消灭它们。这个计划不错，蚊子们，受死吧～～～
