GoKawiilCryo-EM reveals how mosquito smell receptors detect carboxylic acids
Researchers used cryo-electron microscopy to solve structures of the IR8a-IR75k receptor complex from the malaria mosquito Anopheles stephensi, capturing it in ligand-free, ligand-bound, and open-channel states. The structures show how nonanoic and octanoic acid binding reshapes a pocket in IR75k, triggering domain closure that is mechanically transmitted to open the channel's pore, a mechanism confirmed through molecular dynamics simulations and electrophysiology experiments.