POPULAR SCIENCE - While increasingly longer summers and shorter and warmer winters could mean more mosquitoes in the future, some new research might help control increasing populations of the common pest. In a study published March 16 in the journal PLOS ONE, researchers find that it’s likely that the proteins that activate mosquito sperm can be shut down. This action would prevent the sperm from swimming to eggs and fertilizing them. This could help control populations of a species of common house mosquito that is known to transmit West Nile Virus and brain-swelling encephalitis called Culex.
The new paper details all of the proteins that are in the insect’s sperm, which helped researchers find the specific proteins that maintain the quality of the sperm while they’re inactive, as well as the ones that activate the sperm to swim.
“During mating, mosquitoes couple tail to tail, and the males transfer sperm into the female reproductive tract. It can be stored there awhile, but it still has to get from point A to point B to complete fertilization,” said study co-author Cathy Thaler, a cell biologist at the University of California, Riverside, in a statement.
The specialized proteins secreted during ejaculation activate the flagella (aka sperm tails) and power their movement are key to completing their journey into the female mosquito’s reproductive tract.
“Without these proteins, the sperm cannot penetrate the eggs. They’ll remain immotile, and will eventually just degrade,” co-author Richard Cardullo, a University of California, Riverside biology professor, said in a statement.