INVESTIGADORES
SFARA Valeria
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Electrical activity and sensory adaptation of the antennae of Blattella germanica in response to the insect repellent DEET
Autor/es:
V. SFARA, P. GONZÁLEZ AUDINO, AND MOUGABURE CUETO, G
Lugar:
Vilnius
Reunión:
Congreso; 28th Annual Meeting of the International Society of Chemical Ecology; 2012
Institución organizadora:
International Society of Chemical Ecology
Resumen:
N, N-diethyl-3-methyl benzamide (DEET) is an insect repellent
used worldwide. Its effectiveness has been proved in a number of insect
species, including haematophagous and non-haematophagous. There are two contrasting hypothesis regarding
the mode of action of DEET: the more classical hypothesis proposes that DEET
interferes with the detection of odors, in particular host odors in
haematophagous, instead of having a repellent effect. On the other hand, recent
works demonstrated that DEET acts as an odorant molecule and elicits a
behavioral response in the absence of other stimuli. In this work we show with
electrophysiological recordings that the antennae of Blattella germanica respond to DEET and become adapted when
stimulated with long pulses of the same substance.
We also observed the behavioral response of cockroaches
to DEET repellent (results not shown). To determine whether continuous
stimulation with DEET decrease the response of the antennae to the same
compound, we delivered a long pulse of DEET and recorded the response of the
antennae before and after the stimulation. We found that a stimulation of 6 or
60 seconds with DEET produced a decrease of 58% in the amplitude of the
response to the same compound registered after stimulation. These results are
in agreement with the role of DEET as an odor molecule, since it produces
electrical response of the antennae of B.
germanica and it is possible to adapt this response with continuous
stimulation of the antennae.