CICYTTP   12500
CENTRO DE INVESTIGACION CIENTIFICA Y DE TRANSFERENCIA TECNOLOGICA A LA PRODUCCION
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
capítulos de libros
Título:
The role of olfaction in host seeking of triatomine bugs
Autor/es:
P G GUERENSTEIN; C R LAZZARI
Libro:
Ecology and Control of Vector-Borne Diseases - Olfaction in Vector-Host Interactions
Editorial:
Wageningen Academic Publishers
Referencias:
Lugar: Wageningen; Año: 2010; p. 309 - 325
Resumen:
Triatomine bugs (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) are hemimetabolous insects that depend on a blood meal along their entire life cycle.  They live in close association with their vertebrate hosts, including humans.  Triatomines are the vectors of Chagas Disease in the Americas.  They transmit the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi during or immediately after feeding by depositing their faeces on a host.  Olfactory cues play a major role in host seeking in triatomines.  Some of the odorants to which the odour receptor cells respond to are already known.  Most of those odorants (known to also be detected by other haematophagous insects) are of vertebrate origin, and activate odour receptor cells in antennal grooved pegs and basiconic sensilla.  Behavioural responses (activation and/or attraction) to single odorants often occur mainly at concentrations close to those that represent the response threshold for the related olfactory receptor cell.  Information about relevant single odorants (e.g., CO2) is used to build synthetic odour mixtures capable of attracting the bugs efficiently.  Thus, a few odour mixtures that evoke higher attraction than that evoked by its odorant constituents when presented singly (i.e., showing additive or synergistic effects) have been developed.  L (+) lactic acid plays a fundamental role in enhancing the attraction to those mixtures.  Triatomine bugs are nocturnal, and the behavioural response to host odours is temporally modulated.  Thus, behavioural responsiveness to CO2 is controlled by a circadian clock, and is limited to the early night, the moment when the bugs leave their refuges to search a host.  A prototype of odour baited trap that exploits a particular behaviour of triatomines has been developed.  However, more research is needed in order to achieve a practical, cheap and efficient odour lure for a trap able to accomplish the necessary task of surveillance of the bugs in the field.