Hearing is essential for the courtship of one of the major carriers of human disease, the mosquito. Males locate females through flight-tone recognition and both sexes engage in mid-air acoustic communications, which can take place within swarms containing thousands of individuals. Despite the importance of hearing for mosquitoes, its mechanisms are still largely unclear. We here report a multilevel analysis of auditory function across three disease-transmitting mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti, Anopheles gambiae and Culex quinquefasciatus). All ears tested display transduction-dependent power gain. Quantitative analyses of mechanotransducer function reveal sex-specific and species-specific variations, including male-specific, highly sensitive transducer populations. Systemic blocks of neurotransmission result in large-amplitude oscillations only in male flagellar receivers, indicating sexually dimorphic auditory gain control mechanisms. Our findings identify modifications of auditory function as a key feature in mosquito evolution. We propose that intra-swarm communication has been a driving force behind the observed sex-specific and species-specific diversity.

中文翻译：

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蚊子鞭毛耳朵中性别和物种特异性的听力机制。

听力对于人类疾病的主要携带者之一——蚊子的求偶至关重要。雄性通过飞行音识别来定位雌性，并且两性都会进行空中声学通信，这种通信可以在包含数千个体的群体中进行。尽管听力对蚊子很重要，但其机制仍不清楚。我们在这里报告了对三种传播疾病的蚊子（埃及伊蚊、冈比亚按蚊和致倦库蚊）听觉功能的多层次分析。所有测试的耳朵都显示出与传导相关的功率增益。机械传感器功能的定量分析揭示了性别特异性和物种特异性的变化，包括男性特异性、高度敏感的传感器群体。神经传递的系统性阻滞仅在雄性鞭毛接收器中导致大幅振荡，这表明听觉增益控制机制存在性别二态性。我们的研究结果表明，听觉功能的改变是蚊子进化的一个关键特征。我们认为，群体内的交流是观察到的性别特异性和物种特异性多样性背后的驱动力。