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Science Quickly

Malaria Parasite Attracts Mosquitoes with Perfume

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.2639 Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2015

⏱️ 2 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Plasmodium parasite uses an altered type of plant chloroplast to manufacture pine-and-lemon-scented chemicals, which lure in the bloodsuckers. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.

0:05.8

Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years.

0:11.0

Yacold also partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for gut health, an investigator-led research program.

0:19.6

To learn more about Yachtolt, visit yawcult.co.j.j.

0:23.9

That's y-A-K-U-L-T dot-C-O-J-P.

0:28.4

When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacolt.

0:33.5

This is Scientific American 60-second science.

0:36.6

I'm Christopher in Dallata. Got a minute?

0:39.5

Ever lit a citronella candle to ward off mosquitoes, only to have them appear in droves?

0:44.6

Well, believe it or not, you may have actually been attracting the bugs.

0:48.9

Because while high concentrations of those pine and lemon-scented chemicals might repel mosquitoes,

0:55.3

at low concentrations,

1:01.0

they lure the bloodsuckers in. Audrey Odom, who studies mosquitoes at Washington University,

1:07.6

calls it the Chanel hypothesis. Too much perfume is awful, but a little is pretty nice.

1:12.5

Plants take advantage to that to advertise their nectar, because no, mosquitoes don't live on blood alone. But here's where things get weird. Plasmodium, the malaria parasite,

1:19.0

also manufactures these alluring odor molecules, called turpines. It does so using a chloroplast

1:25.0

like organelle, like the one plants used to capture sunlight.

1:28.9

The malaria parasites' version can't trap light, but it can still manufacture plant perfume.

1:34.6

The study appears in the journal M. Bio.

1:37.5

The parasites produce these scents in the lab, and mosquitoes are attracted to them.

1:42.6

The only question left for Odom and her colleagues

1:44.4

is whether these chemicals also appear in the breath of infected humans.

...

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