As part of the STOP-MATING project, Claire Sangba-Kembi, researcher at Institut Pasteur de Bangui (IPB), has recently completed a secondment at CISA-CSIC in Spain.

During her stay, Claire received training in techniques to investigate the role of insecticide resistance mutations in mosquito audition and their potential implications for mosquito mating. Understanding how these mutations may affect mosquito hearing and mating behaviour contributes to STOP-MATING’s broader goal of advancing innovative approaches to control disease-transmitting mosquitoes.

The knowledge and techniques acquired during the secondment will now be transferred back to Institut Pasteur de Bangui, where Claire will apply them to strengthen the vector ecology research currently being carried out by the team.

Claire shared part of her stay at CISA-CSIC with her colleague Yvon-Gildas Gonetomy, also from Institut Pasteur de Bangui, who is currently undertaking a longer secondment within the STOP-MATING project.

These exchanges are a key component of STOP-MATING, fostering knowledge transfer, hands-on training and scientific collaboration between partner institutions.

During her secondment at the University of Perugia, Marta Andrés received training in the generation of transgenic mosquitoes of public health relevance in Southern Europe, particularly Culex pipiens and Aedes albopictus. The knowledge and expertise acquired will be transferred to the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), where these methodologies will be implemented to investigate the molecular basis of mosquito mating behaviour.

 

In addition, the secondment resulted in the development of an analytical pipeline for comparative transcriptomic analyses of hearing and mating processes across mosquito species. Particular attention was given to species-specific behavioural rhythms, enabling more robust cross-species comparisons and providing a framework for future studies of the molecular mechanisms underlying mosquito behaviour.