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Background  Mosquito-borne viruses are transmitted to human hosts  via  blood-feeding behavior of female mosquitoes. Female mosquitoes seek a host to take blood meals (host-seeking behavior). In order to prevent virus infections, it is important to understand how they modulate host-seeking behavior. Dopamine (DA) in the central nervous system acts as a neuromediator that regulates a variety of behaviors in insects. In female mosquitoes, host-seeking behavior increases when DA levels in the head decline after emergence. However, it remains unclear whether DA directly modulates host-seeking behavior in female mosquitoes. The aim of this study was to examine whether changes in DA levels in the head affects host-seeking activity in the adult female mosquito  Aedes albopictus  ( Ae. albopictus ).    Findings  We compared host-seeking behavior in one group of emerging female adults treated with  l -β-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine ( l -DOPA), the precursor of DA, ( l -DOPA group), with that in an untreated control (control group) after confirming elevation of head DA in  l -DOPA group by using high-performance liquid chromatography. The content of head DA in  l -DOPA group significantly remained higher than that in controls on all days examined. The host-seeking activity in the control group showed a gradual increase over the 6-day experimental period. In contrast, there was no such increase in the host-seeking activity in the  l -DOPA group. Therefore, the host-seeking activity of  l -DOPA group was significantly lower than that of the controls between day 3 and 6 post-emergence.    Conclusion  Our results indicate that elevation of DA level reduces host-seeking activity in adult female mosquito  Ae. albopictus .

Elevation of dopamine level reduces host-seeking activity in the adult female mosquito Aedes albopictus