IBBEA   24401
INSTITUTO DE BIODIVERSIDAD Y BIOLOGIA EXPERIMENTAL Y APLICADA
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Induced changes in the behavior of Rhodnius prolixus as an indicator of sensitivity to different bitter compounds
Autor/es:
ASPARCH, Y; MINOLI, S; BARROZO, RB; PONTES, G
Reunión:
Congreso; 32 Annual Meeting of the International Society of Chemical Ecology/ 4th Congress of the Latin American Association of Chemical Ecology; 2016
Resumen:
Kissingbugs (Heteroptera: Reduviidae: Triatominae) are hematophagous insectsresponsible for the transmission of Chagas disease in Latin America. Inprevious experiments carried out in our laboratory we demonstrated that thepresence of bitter substances as caffeine (CAF) and quinine (QUI) on the bitingsurface and/or in the solution to ingest can decrease the ingestion rate of R.prolixus. Although the sensorial pathways for the detection of CAF and QUI arenot known yet, our group is currently working in this subject via differentapproaches. The aim of the present work is to study if kissing bugs are able todistinguish between CAF and QUI (i.e. two bitter substances) or if instead ifthey are perceived as different compounds that generate a similar gustativeaversion. Over a 2-choice experimental arena we registered the aversionproduced by CAF and QUI confronted to water, and both compounds confronted toeach other. Then, in a second series, we applied an operant aversiveconditioning to study if CAF and QUI can be discriminated by triatomines.Briefly, every time bugs visited one side of the arena loaded with either CAFor QUI, a mechanical disturbance was applied, which constituted a negativereinforcement. Our results show that both, CAF and QUI, repel these bugs in asimilar manner. Moreover, no clear preferences were obtained when presentedconfronted or after the aversive conditioning. We conclude that triatomines areincapable of distinguishing between CAF and QUI. Additionally, the conditioningexperiments changed the behavior of these insects, demonstrating that they arecapable of learning about their environments. These studies have relevance atthe time to develop repellents that could decrease bites of these bugs tohumans.