Chih-Ying Su

Mosquitoes are the deadliest animals on Earth, and Aedes aegypti is among the most dangerous. Its extraordinary ability to find us and transmit diseases such as dengue, Zika, chikungunya, and yellow fever relies on carbon dioxide (CO2). While other odors, heat, and visual cues contribute, CO2 plays a special role, activating the mosquito and sensitizing it to our presence [1].

The interplay between neuronal form and function presents an intriguing puzzle for neurobiologists. How does the morphology of a sensory neuron affect its ability to detect stimuli? This question is especially compelling in ciliated sensory neurons, which exhibit diverse morphological features in a modality-specific manner [1].

Abstract The study of olfaction in Drosophila melanogaster has greatly benefited from genetic reagents such as olfactory receptor mutant lines and GAL4 reporter lines. The CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing system has been increasingly used to create null receptor mutants or replace coding regions with GAL4 reporters.