Figure 2. Ae. aegypti Gr3 mutants are not activated by CO₂ and retain normal locomotor behavior.

(A–C) CO₂-evoked flight activity of groups of female Ae. aegypti wild-type, heterozygous, and mutant mosquitoes tracked for 20 min before and after a 40 sec pulse of CO₂ (n=4 replicates per genotype; n=20 mosquitoes/trial).

(A) Representative three-dimensional tracks of the indicated genotypes in the 6 min pre- (left) and post-application (right) of a 40 sec pulse of CO₂.

(B) Distance flown in 1 sec bins per mosquito in response to stimulation with CO₂ (black arrow). Data are shown as mean (solid line) ± s.e.m (grey shading).

(C) Mean distance flown per sec for mosquitoes post-application of CO₂ (t=20–26min). Each replicate is indicated by a dot and mean ± s.e.m. as bars. Variation among genotypes was significant (one-way ANOVA, p < 0.0001). Genotypes marked with different letters are significantly different by post hoc Tukey’s HSD test (p < 0.001).

(D) Locomotor activity of wild-type and Gr3^ECFP/ECFP mutant mosquitoes measured as cm/min/animal over a 23 hr period (dark period indicated by black bar) without supplemental CO₂ (n=5 replicates per genotype; 20 females per replicate). Data are shown as mean (solid line) ± s.e.m (grey shading).

(E) Total distance flown per mosquito and average flight velocity of data in D. Each replicate is indicated by a dot and mean ± s.e.m. as bars (ns, not significant; t-test, p > 0.05).