生物谷报道以色列希伯来大学的Yosef Schlein教授在一项新研究中发现，文章对糖的渴望可能根除疟疾和其他由蚊子传播疾病的答案。这项研究的结果刊登在美国出版的《国际寄生虫学杂志》（International Journal for Parasitology）上。
虽然通常人都知道雌蚊子在产卵前需要吸血，但很少又文献记载，它们在大餐之间有吃一些“甜点”的习惯。这些甜点来自花朵的花蜜和植物叶子和茎干的蜜腺。这些物质能够持续地为蚊子供应能量。
Schlein等人想要解开蚊子嗜爱甜点的秘密。他们将一种含有杀虫剂的糖溶液喷洒到阿拉伯树胶树上。试验在以色列南部沙漠地区的一个绿洲上进行。因为这个低于没有其他开花植物，因此研究人员推测在没有其他糖源的情况下，寻找花蜜的蚊子可能会被这些植物吸引。这种含有口服杀虫剂Spinosad的蔗糖溶液被喷洒到绿洲上的阿拉伯胶树上。结果，杀虫剂的喷洒消灭了绿洲上几乎所有的蚊子群落。
Schlein表示，在干旱地区，糖资源的缺乏能够限制蚊子的寿命，并因此降低它们传播疾病的能力。Schlein相信，如果喷洒Spinosad-糖溶液诱饵，花朵能够被用于有效地控制蚊子。
Mosquitoes' thirst for sugar could prove to be the answer for eliminating malaria and other mosquito-transmitted diseases, says Hebrew University researcher Prof. Yosef Schlein in a study published in the American Science magazine and the International Journal for Parasitology.
We have all suffered the irritation of being the food source for hungry mosquitoes. While it is generally well known that female mosquitoes need a meal of blood before laying their eggs, less has been written about their appetite for sweet snacks between meals.
It is this diet of ''sweets'' – derived from nectar from flowers and nectaries on plant leaves and stems - that provide mosquitoes with their persistent energy.
Schlein and his co-researcher, Günter Müller, in the Department of Parasitology at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School's Kuvin Center for the Study of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, decided to exploit the mosquitoes' thirst for sweets to bring about their demise - by spraying acacia trees with a sugar solution that had been spiked with the oral insecticide Spinosad.
The experiment was carried out in an oasis in the southern desert region in Israel where some scattered trees flower most of the year, including during a long, dry and otherwise flowerless season. Schlein assumed that in the absence of other sugar sources nectar-searching mosquitoes would be attracted to these plants.
The oasis was chosen for its isolated mosquito population, so that the experiment could be carried out effectively without influx and exchange of mosquitoes from neighboring areas.
Sucrose solution spiked with the oral insecticide Spinosad was sprayed on acacia trees in the oasis. The spraying of insecticide had the effect of eliminating almost the entire mosquito population in the oasis. The few mosquitoes that were trapped after spraying were thought to be newly emerging adults, and cumulative population growth was prevented by continuous effect of the insecticide. Thus, the oasis was completely depleted of its mosquito population.
Schlein says that in a desert area, in the dry season, the flowers of sparse perennial trees or bushes are key elements in the habitat of adult mosquitoes, since they are the only source of sugar. In dry areas, the shortage of sugar sources may even limit the life span of mosquitoes and thus decrease their ability to transmit diseases. Even when a large variety of flowers is available, the number of sugar sources is limited by the preferences of the mosquitoes. For example, among 77 flowering plants in Wisconsin, mosquitoes concentrated on four dominant ones.
Schlein believes that blossoms that are nectar-feeding centers may be used for efficient mosquito-control, if sprayed with the Spinosad-sugar solution bait. Spinosad is an environmental ''reduced-risk'' oral insecticide that has little effect on several insect groups, and has low toxicity to birds and mammals.
Places that might be suitable for using floral centers for control of mosquitoes are desert and savannah regions, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where the burden of malaria is increasing due to environmental changes, drug resistance and mosquito resistance to conventional insecticides. These areas include large-scale irrigation projects in arid and semi-arid areas that cover nearly half of the arable land in Africa and similar projects in the desert in Pakistan. In these regions, irrigated crops, such as rice, are not a source of nectar for adult mosquitoes, while sugar meals are scarce in the surrounding arid areas.
Therefore, the planting of mosquito-attracting trees or bushes in suitable habitats, sprayed with oral insecticide, could provide a relatively easy and cheap way to supplement the limited arsenal against mosquitoes – and the fight against malaria.
来自：http://www.huji.ac.il/cgi-bin/dovrut/dovrut_search_eng.pl?mesge115882261732688760
