Genes discovered for sensing carbon dioxide

Researchers have tracked down a pair of genes that, together, seem responsible for some insects’ ability to sense carbon dioxide. Because mosquitoes detect the gas to home in on their next blood meal, a means to block this sense could lead to more-effective mosquito repellents.

To locate the carbon dioxide–sensing genes, Leslie Vosshall of the Rockefeller Institute in New York and her colleagues worked with Drosophila melanogaster.