RESEARCH ARTICLE Extensive circadian and lig a

Full list of author information is available at the end of the articleBackground The mosquito An. gambiae is the primary African malaria vector, whilst Ae. aegypti is the primary vector of dengue fever and yellow fever. Mosquito physiology and behavior are under rhythmic control, organized in a time-of-day specific manner. Eukaryotic organisms pos-sess a circadian (“about a day”) clock, regulating daily rhythms in biochemistry, physiology and behavior. It is cell autonomous, and at the molecular level is comprised of a series of transcriptional-translational feedback loops (TTFLs), whose completion takes approximately 24 hr [1]. In An. gambiae daily behavioral rhythms are known to include dusk mating swarms, nocturnal flight activity, sugar feeding, blood feeding and oviposition. Late day larval-pupal ecdysis and late day/early night eclosion are also rhythmic [2-14]. Ae. aegypti behavioral rhythms have been describe