Evolution of the sensory system in mosquitoes

Combining phylogenomics, microscopy and molecular biology.

Collaborators: Marta Andres Miguel (Univeristy College London, UK), Jordi Solana (University of Exeter, UK), Roberto Feuda (PI, University of Leicester, UK)

Mosquitoes perceive their environment combining multimodal cues including vision, hearing, smelling, chemosensation, thermosensation and CO2 sensation. As some female mosquitoes require blood-meal to get the needed energy for oviposition, most research on host-seeking behaviour focuses on a single species with male vs. female differences.

Here we are exploring the evolution of the sensory system in mosquitoes using phylogenomics tools (Devilliers et al., 2025) and molecular biology methods (Devilliers et al., 2024), comparing both bood-feeding vs. non-blood feeding species, and sexes. The overarching goal of this project is to identify sensory modalities and genes involved in mating and host-seeking behaviour.

In this project we particularly focussed on vision evolution, combining phylogenomics, bulk RNA-seq in the eye of Anopheles gambiae, Toxorhynchites brevipalpis and Aedes aegypti, miscroscopy (HCR) and single-cell RNA-seq on the head of Anopheles gambiae (Devilliers et al., 2025) and Aedes aegypti (Goldman et al., 2025).

References

2025

  1. Hematophagy Generates a Convergent Genomic Signature in Mosquitoes and Sandflies
    Julien Devilliers, Ben Warren, Ezio Rosato, Charalambos P Kyriacou, and Roberto Feuda
    Genome Biology and Evolution, Mar 2025
  2. An Optimized SPLiT-Seq Protocol for Insects
    Julien Devilliers, Elena Emili, Virginia Vanni, Jordi Solana, and Roberto Feuda
    Mar 2025
  3. Mosquito Cell Atlas: A single-nucleus transcriptomic atlas of the adult Aedes aegypti mosquito
    Olivia V. Goldman, Alexandra E. DeFoe, Yanyan Qi, Yaoyu Jiao, Shih-Che Weng, Leah Houri-Zeevi, Priyanka Lakhiani, Takeshi Morita, Jacopo Razzauti, Adriana Rosas-Villegas, Yael N. Tsitohay, Madison M. Walker, Ben R. Hopkins, Mosquito Cell Atlas Consortium, Omar S. Akbari, Laura B. Duvall, Helen White-Cooper, Trevor R. Sorrells, Roshan Sharma, Hongjie Li, Leslie B. Vosshall, and Nadav Shai
    bioRxiv, Mar 2025

2024

  1. Molecular correlates of swarming behaviour in Aedes aegypti males
    Julien Devilliers, Hollie Marshall, Ben Warren, Charalambos P. Kyriacou, Luciana O. Araripe, Rafaela V. Bruno, Ezio Rosato, and Roberto Feuda
    Biology Letters, Mar 2024