Good afternoon. I’m Nikita Utami, and you are listening to ABC Afternoon Report. We will bring you interesting news for the next thirty minutes. Let’s start with news from researchers at Florida International University. It has been decades since scientists discovered mosquitoes’ attraction to human sweat, which contain lactic acid. However, back then, the era of advanced genetics had not yet arrived, so the precise mechanism of this phenomenon was still a mystery. Now, because technology is more advanced, researchers from Florida International University can precisely describe the mechanism. Mosquitoes have a strong olfactory receptor that helps them detect human odor. These diseases-carrying insects’ receptors can be switched on and off. Furthermore, in a journal titled “Current Biology,” they also discuss Aides aegypti. These mosquitoes are infamous for spreading deadly diseases like yellow fever, dengue fever, and Zika. The team of researchers was led by an FIU biologist named Matthew DeGennaroe. Under his leadership, the team succeeded in identifying the receptor as Ionotropic Receptor 8a or IR8a for short. The success wouldn’t have happened if not for his earlier research in 2013. Through a process of elimination, Matthew successfully made the world’s first mutant mosquito. Matthew removed a gene from a mosquito to inspect how its absence affected the mosquito. Listeners, we’ll be back with Afternoon Report after the following advertisement. Stay tuned to ABC Radio.​