Sniffing Out Solutions: Mosquito Olfaction and the Development of Targeted Vector-Control Strategies

Mosquito-borne diseases remain a major global health challenge, and their control is complicated by limitations in vaccines and treatments, environmental change, urbanisation, and the spread of insecticide resistance. These challenges highlight the need for complementary vector-control strategies that are sustainable, species-specific, and grounded in mosquito ecology and behaviour. Host seeking is mediated by the mosquito sensory systems, particularly olfaction, where odorant receptors expressed in peripheral olfactory organs play an important role in detecting host-associated volatile organic compounds. Because olfactory cues guide host localisation and host-vector contact, receptor-mediated odour detection directly influences biting rate, a key parameter of vectorial capacity.

This paper provides an overview of current challenges in mosquito-borne disease control, followed by a brief discussion of the ecology and evolution of blood feeding. It then focuses on mosquito olfaction, with particular emphasis on odorant receptor-ligand interactions in Anopheles gambiae and Aedes aegypti, two major disease vectors with distinct evolutionary histories. Current knowledge of characterised receptor-ligand interactions is synthesised, and key remaining knowledge gaps are highlighted. Continued receptor deorphanisation, functional validation, and computational ligand-discovery approaches can facilitate the identification of behaviourally relevant odorants. These advances can support the development of odour-based vector-control tools aimed at reducing vectorial capacity and mitigating the spread of mosquito-borne diseases.