The Q-system is a repressible binary expression system for transgenic manipulations in living organisms. Through protein engineering and in vivo functional tests, we report here new variants of the Q-system transcriptional activator, including QF2, that allows the Q-system to drive strong and ubiquitous expression for the first time in all tissues. Our new QF2, GAL4QF and LexAQF chimeric transcriptional activators substantially enrich the toolkit available for transgenic regulation in Drosophila.

Mosquitoes are vectors for multiple infectious human diseases and use a variety of sensory cues (olfactory, temperature, humidity and visual) to locate a human host. A comprehensive understanding of the circuitry underlying sensory signalling in the mosquito brain is lacking. Here we used the Q-system of binary gene expression to develop transgenic lines of Anopheles gambiae in which olfactory receptor neurons expressing the odorant receptor co-receptor (Orco) gene are labelled with GFP. These neurons project from the antennae and maxillary palps to the antennal lobe (AL) and from the labella on the proboscis to the suboesophageal zone (SEZ), suggesting integration of olfactory and gustatory signals occurs in this brain region. We present detailed anatomical maps of olfactory innervations in the AL and the SEZ, identifying glomeruli that may respond to human body odours or carbon dioxide. Our results pave the way for anatomical and functional neurogenetic studies of sensory processing in mosquitoes.