After much speculation about why mosquitoes they bite some, some not, science has just made up its mind. The amount of carboxylic acid that each individual produces in their skin will determine how attractive their body is to these insects. who produces Higher levels of this compound emit a specific body odor and become a “mosquito magnet”.those who produce less will manage to go unnoticed by them any more.
That’s the main conclusion of the study, which two researchers from Rockefeller University in New York, Leslie Vosshall and María Elena de Obaldia, have made public. The results were published in the journal Cell and put an end to a number of popular theories about what attracts mosquitoes, often with no scientific basis.
Both researchers managed to show that this type of acid emitted from the skin can create a truly intoxicating perfume for mosquitoes. These substances in the human body form a group of molecules that each person secretes in different amounts and compositions.forming a mark of personal identity.
“There’s a very, very strong correlation between having large amounts of these fatty acids in your skin and being a magnet for mosquitoes,” said Professor Vosshall.
64 volunteers with socks on their arms
This result was discovered after three years of experimentation. The scientists asked 64 volunteers to wear nylon stockings on their forearms. so that they can be impregnated with the molecules of their skin. Mosquitoes were given 2,300 different tests in which each pair of socks was shown so they could detect their scent and choose one of them.
Mosquitoes were used for this test. aedes aegyptiMajor vector types of Zika, dengue, yellow fever and chikungunyaand observed how insects fly through different tubes into one medium or another.
by a large margin, The most attractive volunteer for these mosquitoes was the so-called ‘Subject 33’, who received four times more insect visits than the next in the ranking.and not 100 times less than the least visited ‘Topic 19’ by them.
Samples in the trials were not identified, so experimenters did not know which participant was wearing which stocking. However, they quickly noticed something unusual in any test involving Subject 33, because the bugs would jump right into their socks. “It became apparent a few seconds after the rehearsal started,” says De Obaldia.
Then, in light of these results, the researchers analyzed different volunteers to find out what differentiated them. They used chemical analysis techniques to identify 50 molecular compounds found in the participants’ skin. it was then They found that the volunteers most attractive to mosquitoes produced much higher levels of carboxylic acid than the others.
This substance is used by bacteria on the skin to produce the body odor found in every human being. And it’s personal to each person.
This discovery opens the door to the production of mosquito repellent products that reduce the presence of these acids or infect the bacteria that produce every person’s body odour.
Although the experiment (later expanded to more participants with the same results) was conducted with the mosquito species mentioned above, the researchers think other samples would have the same behavior.
Reference work: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867422009278?via%3Dihub
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