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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.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by shrewdsheep on Friday September 28 2018, @08:38AM (4 children)
Sigh, ... they seem to be able to only remember one sentence at a time.
Yes, this is exactly where the previous efforts were, and also where their effectiveness stopped. Genetic modifications can only be successful if they convey a reproductive advantage not a disadvantage. The only way would therefore be to couple any such advantage with a sensitivity to some drug/substance. Then wait for the modification to spread and then strike with one swift stroke. Enjoy a couple of mosquito free years and restart the process thereafter when a resistant subpopulation has recovered in numbers.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Friday September 28 2018, @11:34AM (2 children)
I think they're going for the smallpox level of effectiveness. Kind of like shooting buffalo a bit more than a century ago didn't result in the evolution of naturally bullet-proof buffalo hides.
Also there's a lot of mosquito species competing with each other and disease carrying effectiveness varies widely. So nuking all the malaria mosquitoes from orbit doesn't mean they return years later to an empty niche.
(Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Friday September 28 2018, @02:16PM
You cannot achieve that through genetic manipulation of a subpopulation. I give you that after H-bombing, say, all of the Americas on a very small grid, there will not be any mosquitos left on said continent, nor will they magically reappear unless imported.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 12 2018, @01:28PM
I thought the idea was to convey an advantage to the males, while killing the females.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 28 2018, @05:10PM
Or, introduce some trait which simultaneously makes them more likely to survive, and less of a pest to humans :)