Mosquitoes Follow Microbes Emanating Volatile Molecules

The mosquitoes that carry malaria parasites preferentially bite the feet of the humans on whom they feed, heading for—or, in some cases, avoiding—particular molecules emanating from microorganisms that favor that part of the human anatomy, according to Niels Verhulst and Renate Smallegange of Wageningen University and Research Centre in Wageningen, the Netherlands, and their collaborators there and at other institutions in Germany and the United States. Their recent findings refine our understanding of which bacterial genera are involved in attracting or repelling Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes from those sites.