rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org Research Cite this article: Majeed S, Hill SR, Birgersson G, Ignell R. 2016 Detection and perception of generic host volatiles by mosquitoes modulate host preference: context dependence of (R)-1-octen-3-ol. R. Soc. open sci. 3: 160467. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160467 Received: 30 June 2016 Accepted: 10 October 2016 Subject Category: Biology (whole organism) Subject Areas: behaviour/ecology/neuroscience Keywords: (R)-1-octen-3-ol, chemical analysis, behaviour, electrophysiology, Anopheles coluzzii, Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus Author for correspondence: Rickard Ignell e-mail: rickard.ignell@slu.se † Present address: Department of Entomology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, PO Box 38000, Punjab, Pakistan. ‡ Present address: US-Pakistan Centre for Advanced Studies-Agriculture Food Security (US-PCAS-AFS), University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, PO Box 38000, Punjab, Pakistan. Detection and perception of generic host volatiles by mosquitoes modulate host preference: context dependence of (R)-1-octen-3-ol Shahid Majeed †, ‡ , Sharon Rose Hill, Göran Birgersson and Rickard Ignell Unit of Chemical Ecology, Department of Plant Protection Biology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, PO Box 102, SE-230 53 Alnarp, Sweden RI, 0000-0002-4607-5986 Natural selection favours a restricted host breadth in disease vector mosquitoes, indicating that there is an adaptive value associated with maintaining plasticity in host preference. One mechanism to maintain such plasticity is via the detection of generic cues by conserved peripheral olfactory pathways, which when perceived in different host odour contexts enable the identification of and discrimination among potential host species. Here, we show that the context of an odour cue shapes host perception in mosquitoes, by altering the release rate of the generic host-related volatile (R)-1-octen-3-ol, within its natural range, and in the background odour of known hosts and non-hosts. This result highlights that host recognition is contextual and dependent on quantitative and qualitative differences in odour blends and the olfactory codes evoked. From the perspective of vector management, understanding the perception of odour blends and their context is essential to the process of developing synthetic blends for the optimal attraction of mosquitoes in efforts to control and monitor populations. 1. Background Inherent host preference is often a marked characteristic of mosquito disease vectors [1–3], and while blood-feeding preference is inherent in mosquitoes [1,3], it can be modulated by host availability [4,5]. The plasticity of host preference, a key 2016 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. on November 10, 2016 http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/ Downloaded from