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posted by mrpg on Friday September 28 2018, @05:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the nature-will-find-a-way dept.

Controlling mosquitos with a gene drive that makes females infertile:

We've known for a long time that we can limit malaria infections by controlling the mosquitos that transmit them. But that knowledge hasn't translated into control efforts that have always been completely successful. Many of the approaches we've used to control mosquitos have caused environmental problems, and mosquito populations are large enough that they have evolved resistance to many of our pesticides.

That made the development of what are called "gene drive" constructs exciting (if a bit scary). They have the potential to rapidly spread genes throughout a population—including a mosquito population. But the prospect of a modern genetic control of mosquito populations has run up against the very old problem of evolution, as the gene drives often stall due to genetic changes that allow mosquito populations to escape their impact.

Now, a team has figured out a way that might avoid this problem: use gene drive to target a gene that's fundamental to how mosquitos develop as male or female. In doing so, it makes the females sterile and, at least in the lab, causes mosquito populations to collapse.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 28 2018, @09:11AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 28 2018, @09:11AM (#741249)

    What is the projected effect on other species that eat mosquitos and their larvae? Frogs, birds, spiders, bats?

  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Friday September 28 2018, @11:30AM (2 children)

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 28 2018, @11:30AM (#741277)

    What is the projected effect on other species that eat mosquitos and their larvae?

    Phrased wrong in that I'm not aware of any mosquito specific predators that aren't perfectly happy when the lack of mosquito larvae means 10% more equally delicious housefly larvae in the same ecological niche.

    With a side dish of people are more important than frogs, so even if the world frog population declined 5%, that would be worth it to prevent millions of malaria deaths per year.

    Kind of like how people can get annoyed about windmills killing birds, then drive by a coal power plant on the way to dinner at KFC. It would be nice if windmills didn't kill birds, but since every other possible alternative is worse, and they are, after all, just birds...

    • (Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Friday September 28 2018, @06:12PM (1 child)

      by PinkyGigglebrain (4458) on Friday September 28 2018, @06:12PM (#741456)

      Ever seen a orb weavers spider web?

      Beautiful are they not?

      Now, break a single thread. Depending on which one you pick the result can range from being barely noticeable to the near total collapse of the web.

      Which thread is the mosquito?

      --
      "Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
      • (Score: 2) by VLM on Friday September 28 2018, @07:03PM

        by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 28 2018, @07:03PM (#741486)

        Yeah the problem with that analogy is species go extinct all the time. Even big stuff like passenger pigeon or for all practical purposes the buffalo. I think we'll be fine without some bloodsuckers.

        One way to look at it, is no ecology has a wild improvement via random swarms of random mosquitoes. Nobody AFAIK ever said "This place is ecologically dead until we seed it with mosquitoes"