The Relative Contributions of the Skin Microbiome and Host Genetics in Human Attractiveness to Malaria Mosquitoes. HAMM

Bacteria living on the human skin have a major impact on the production of body odour, specifically the production of volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) that mosquitoes use to locate their host. Human participants are a mixture of 100 monozygotic and 100 dizygotic twins recruited in the UK for which genomic data is already available (TwinsUK database), and who have had their levels of attractiveness to the malaria vector Anopheles coluzzii measured and production of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). The metagenomic analysis will be used to test associations between skin microbiome composition, host genetic factors, levels of attractiveness and production of VOCs by the human body and specific bacterial taxa.