With Leslie B. Vosshall of the Rockefeller University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
The biological drive to eat and have sex is important for all sexually reproducing species. These drives, however, must be carefully controlled for animals—including humans—to function normally. The sensations of hunger and satiety ensure that animals eat at appropriate times and avoid either undereating or overeating. The same concept of hunger and satiety can apply to sex drive. Work in my laboratory is aimed at understanding the drive mechanisms that control feeding and sex. We use Aedes aegypti mosquitoes to study feeding behavior. Because this insect is also a vector of dangerous infectious diseases such as yellow fever and Dengue virus, the work has important public health implications. Female mosquitoes require a blood meal to complete egg development and are attracted to human hosts via multiple sensory cues including emitted body odor, heat, and carbon dioxide in the breath. We are using genetics to understand how sensory cues are integrated to lead to host-seeking behavior. We use the fly Drosophila melanogaster to study sex drive and have identified a small number of neurons that both controls male fly sex drive and the precise duration of copulation. Recent advances from my group in both research areas will be discussed.
