How dengue mosquitoes outsmart even scientists
Chethan Kumar
TNN
Updated: Jun 23, 2025, 18:12 IST IST
While the dengue mosquito is a smarter predator than previously thought — it can detect you with its legs, too — Indian scientists have detected that a stealthy group of immune cells could be the unsung heroes in fighting the infection
It's tough to outsmart a mosquito out for your blood. Here's some consolation. The buzzing insect outsmarts even supersmart scientists. 'Aedes aegypti', the mosquito behind dengue , Zika, and yellow fever , hunts down its prey — humans — primarily by its sense of smell. So, when researchers from the Rockefeller University stripped Aedes aegypti of its primary olfactory gene, Orco — knocking out their sense of smell — they reckoned the female mosquito will lose her hunting instinct. But she was smarter than they were.
As a new study published in Science Advances details, when deprived of their olfactory power, Aedes use their ability to sense body heat. Typically, it's the mosquito's antennae that detects odours and heat. But Orco mutants deploy their forelegs to detect human skin temperature.
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