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Stimulating Anopheles gambiae swarms in the laboratory: application for behavioural and fitness studies

Overview of attention for article published in Malaria Journal, July 2015
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  • Above-average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (51st percentile)
  • Average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source

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Title
Stimulating Anopheles gambiae swarms in the laboratory: application for behavioural and fitness studies
Published in
Malaria Journal, July 2015
DOI 10.1186/s12936-015-0792-2
Pubmed ID
Authors

Luca Facchinelli, Laura Valerio, Rosemary S Lees, Clelia F Oliva, Tania Persampieri, C Matilda Collins, Andrea Crisanti, Roberta Spaccapelo, Mark Q Benedict

Abstract

Male Anopheles mosquitoes that swarm rely in part on features of the environment including visual stimuli to locate swarms. Swarming is believed to be the primary behaviour during which mating occurs in the field, but is not a common behaviour in the laboratory. Features that stimulate male Anopheles gambiae G3 strain swarming were created in novel large indoor cages. The following visual features were tested in all combinations to determine which were important for swarm formation. Large cages and fading ceiling lights at dusk alone did not stimulate swarming while a dark foreground and contrasting illuminated background with a contrasting landmark stimulated and localized swarm formation during artificial twilight. Given the need to test transgenic strains in as natural a setting as possible, in this study it was investigated whether induced swarm behaviour and cage size would affect relative mating performance of wild-type and transgenic β2Ppo1 and β2Ppo2 A. gambiae sexually sterile males. Even using a mosquito colony that has been in laboratory culture for 39 years, swarming behaviour was induced by this novel arrangement. The presence of swarming stimuli was associated with an increase in insemination frequency from 74.3 to 97.7% in large cages. Transgenic males showed a lower competitiveness in large cages compared to small cages regardless of the presence of swarming stimuli. The results of the present study are discussed in view of the progressive evaluation of genetically modified A. gambiae strains and the potential applications of reproducing swarms in controlled conditions to dissect the mating behaviour of this species and the mechanisms controlling it.

X Demographics

X Demographics

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 81 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United Kingdom 1 1%
Australia 1 1%
Unknown 79 98%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 20 25%
Researcher 16 20%
Student > Master 12 15%
Student > Bachelor 11 14%
Student > Doctoral Student 3 4%
Other 6 7%
Unknown 13 16%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 28 35%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 20 25%
Medicine and Dentistry 4 5%
Environmental Science 3 4%
Social Sciences 3 4%
Other 9 11%
Unknown 14 17%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 29 July 2015.
All research outputs
#13,441,810
of 22,817,213 outputs
Outputs from Malaria Journal
#3,519
of 5,563 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#123,673
of 262,607 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Malaria Journal
#66
of 106 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,817,213 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 39th percentile – i.e., 39% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 5,563 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 6.8. This one is in the 33rd percentile – i.e., 33% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 262,607 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 51% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 106 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 33rd percentile – i.e., 33% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.