The article discusses research investigating the physiology of a mosquito's olfactory system. A brief overview of how the malaria-causing mosquito Anopheles gambiae uses its sense of smell to identify its victims and the results of research by the authors who inserted mosquito genes into the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster to create smell detectors that they then used to test the sensitivity to 110 odorants is presented. Also presented is how identifying chemicals that can fool or block a mosquito's tuned receptors could help improve traps and repellents and reduce the spread of malaria. INSET: Mutant Nose Knows.
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