Monica Hernandez Estrada
Animal Physiology
Research interests
Mosquitoes are responsible for the transmission of parasitic and viral infections, such as malaria, yellow fever and chikungunya, to millions of people. Over one million people worldwide die from mosquito-borne diseases every year.
An understanding of mosquito behaviour and physiological processes in mosquitoes, such as gustation and olfaction, is important for designing and implementing effective measures for vector control and disease surveillance.
Gustatory stimuli are perceived by cells on the mouthparts and legs of mosquitoes. Identifying feeding stimulants and their specific receptors in the labellar and leg sensilla will enable us to determine the correlation between the selective activation of receptor cells by products and subsequent behavioural responses in mosquitoes. Electrophysiological recordings will be used to measure the neurophysiological responses of gustatory receptor cells to stimuli in order to identify the most active feeding stimulants to be tested in behavioural experiments.
