Member Symposium
Lisa Baik (she/her/hers)
Postdoctoral Fellow
Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut
Gaƫlle Talross
Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut
Sydney Gray
Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut
Himani Pattisam
Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut
James Nidetz
Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut
Felix Hol
Radboud University Medical Center
Nijmegen, The Netherlands
John Carlson (he/him/his)
Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut
Insects use their taste system to guide important behaviors including feeding, biting, and egg-laying, but the mechanisms by which the taste system of mosquitoes controls these behaviors remains elusive. We examine how simple and complex taste cues are encoded by the taste system to drive behaviors of Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, a highly invasive disease vector. We find that taste neurons of the labellum, differentially encode ecologically relevant cues including nectar, sweat, and egg-laying site water, responding to each with distinct neuronal profiles and subsequent behaviors. We found that human sweat is detected by the labellum, and that sweat increases biting behaviors through the taste system. A systematic physiological screen revealed 3 major functional classes of taste sensilla, responding to several types of taste compounds. We found that the taste system of mosquitoes has an expansive coding capacity. Taste neuron responses varied in magnitude and some tastants evoked strong excitation while others inhibition. We identified bitter compounds that inhibited physiological and behavioral responses to sugar through synergistic coding, suggesting their use as potent stop signals against typically appetitive cues. We identified key components of human skin and sweat that are synergistically encoded by taste neurons and promote biting behaviors. Finally, transcriptomic profiling identified chemosensory genes expressed in the labellum, including gustatory and ionotropic taste receptors that likely underlie taste-driven behaviors. Our study sheds light on key features of the taste system that may lead to new ways of manipulating chemosensory function and controlling mosquito vectors.