Lessons to be popular: the chemical basis of aggregation in Trypanosoma cruzi-infected and non-infected Chagasic bugs

Abstract

Aggregation is one of the most remarkable behaviours in the animal kingdom—a process that is usually governed by pheromones. Triatomines are blood-sucking bugs that act as vectors of Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiological agent of Chagas disease in mammals, including humans. Triatomines usually gather in roosting refuges by using aggregation pheromones of unknown chemical structure. In terms of vector control, one option to reduce triatomine–human contact is via capturing the insects into traps baited with lures based on such aggregation pheromones. As a first step towards this aim, we elucidated the aggregation pheromone in the triatomine Triatoma pallidipennis, using T. cruzi-infected and non-infected bugs. We used different extraction techniques and gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry for the identification. Also, two different bioassays were implemented for evaluating the attractant and arrestant activity of the pheromone. We found that T. pallidipennis produced short-chain aldehydes as attractants, and nitrogen-derived compounds as arrestants. We detected differences in the production and perception of these compounds according to whether animals were infected or not. These findings show that T. cruzi may influence triatomine chemical ecology and are promising tools for triatomine control.