The team from the University of California, Santa Barbara, studied Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which spread viruses to around 400 million people a year.
They closely observed the insects’ aerial mating habits – that can last between a few seconds to just under a minute – and then figured out how to disrupt it using genetics.
They targeted a protein called trpVa that appears to be essential for hearing.
In the mutated mosquitoes, neurons normally involved in detecting sound showed no response to the flight tones or wingbeats of potential mates.
The alluring noise fell on deaf ears.
In contrast, wild (non-mutant) males were quick to copulate, multiple times, and fertilised nearly all the females in their cage.
The researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara, who have published their work in the journal PNAS, external, said the effect of the gene knock-out was “absolute”, as mating by deaf males was entirely eliminated.
