Genetically modified mosquitoes could soon be released into the wild in an attempt to combat malaria. Scientists at Imperial College London, who created the GM insects, say they could wipe out natural mosquito populations and save thousands of lives in malaria-stricken regions.
Led by Andrea Crisanti, the team added a gene that makes the testicles of the male mosquitoes fluorescent, allowing the scientists to distinguish and easily separate them from females. The plan is to breed, sterilise and release millions of these male insects so they mate with wild females but produce no offspring, eradicating insects in the target region within weeks.
Tee-hee, tee-hee. He said, “flourescent testicles”.
Mosquitoes that spread malaria have long been a target for sterile male technology, which has been used to eradicate the screwworm fly from the US, Mexico and Central America.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has been using its radiation technology to support health projects, and wants to release sterile mosquitoes to tackle malaria in northern Sudan and on Reunion island in the Indian ocean – but they and other groups have been hampered by an inability to distinguish the males, which do not bite people. Female mosquitoes transmit malaria, even if sterile, so releasing them alongside males would make the situation worse.
To solve the problem, his team altered the DNA of the mosquito species Anopheles stephensi, the principal carrier of malaria in Asia, so that the males expressed a fluorescent green protein in their sperm. A sorting machine based on laser light separated male from female larvae, according to whether they glowed or not. Writing in Nature Biotechnology today, the scientists say the machine could sort 180,000 larvae in 10 hours.
Now, what else could we do with this technology?
Ummm….Wouldnt this have a rather severe consequence on the ecosystem?
I mean there ARE other species that rely on the mosquito as a source of food….
chris: you have a point, but it’s a problem only if there’s something out there that feeds exclusively on mosquitos.
Frankenscience.
It backfires with the gypsy moth. After some escaped from the laboratory, this artificial silk worm is now rampantly chewing hardwood trees.
Gene manipulated rapeseed is crossbreeding with organic / natural rapeseed. Soon only Monsanto’s version will be available.
Zebra Mussels, accidentally released into the Great Lakes, continue to plug water intake systems for drinking water plants and power plants. Zebra Mussels came to North America in the holds of Ocean Going Ships in their ballast water..
Purple Loostrife is overtaking wetlands throughout the mid states up into Canada. There are no predators for it. As it pushes out native flora, the balance is upset and native fauna are deprived of food sources.
The list goes on and on. And now they want to change nature some more?
If they could cross the specie barrier with this modification there could be a fortune in it. Along the lines of tattoos and body piercing, fluorescent testicles could be next big thing.
Pat, get a little up-to-date with Frankenfears. The Gypsy Moth fiasco is nearing a century ago. Introduction, either voluntary or accidentally [as in the Zebra mussles] of non-native species has nothing to do with GM.
I pay attention to GM concerns when they’re founded in decent science.
On of the last times they gentically engineered something didn’t it go really bad? Killer bee anyone?
I guess that they make the mosquito testicles fluorescent so you can see them better when they need to be chopped off? Interesting job… loads of fun on Parents show-and-tell day at school.
One thing to think about though… if all living beings have an afterlife… someone’s going to be dealing with lots of angry ‘skeeters for eternity.
Mosquitoes have testicles? That’s one image that ywould never have crossed my mind… thanks Eideard!
This is what happens when you avoid comon sense and ban DDT. Now they are tinkering with mosquitos to deal with the resulting malaria.
Eideard
I admire your intelligence on most matters you introduce and comment on in this forum. I think you might be a little short sighted on this though. The point is not the four examples being accidents or on purpose. They were intended to demonstrate what happens when new species are introduced that have no predators. They tend to push out native species and upset the harmonious balance of nature.
My example of rapeseed is that through wind borne pollination, Monsanto’s genetically modified version of rape seed is supplanting other varieties. A good thing? Only if you are Monsanto and want to collect royalties from those who did not not buy your seeds. When one specie has no diversity, then it has a very narrow tolerance to disease.
The use of DDT to eradicate mosquitoes wasn’t that great an idea. First, by temporarily reducing the incidence of malaria, it also reduced man’s resistance to it. Second, by spraying DDT (or a lot of other insecticides) the mosquitoes developed some resistance. The side effects of introducing DDT were seen up the food chain. Soon fish and birds, which both eat and live in DDT treated areas, built up large levels of DDT in their fat tissues. Their offspring developed thin, sterile shells and other abnormalities. As the mosquitoes natural predators died off, (or were greatly reduced) the mosquitoes came back with a vengeance. With the malarial mosquitoes return, massive outbreaks of human malaria ensued.
While the intent may be noble, long term study of genetically modifying vegetation or even animal species has many documented failures. Generally, competition is good, mono culture is not.
Hasn’t something like this been done before? I seem to remember California scientists releasing fruit flies (Medflies?) that had been genetically modified to be horny-but-sterile. The idea is to bring down the population without pesticides.
It seemed like a clever idea at the time but maybe it didn’t work, since I’ve never heard about it since.
Actually, Pat, I’m involved with a project under a 1/4-mile from my home — removing volunteer species from the bosque of the Santa Fe River. Tamarisk [brought to the US as “ornamental” and Russian Olive are species of non-native trees which have crowded out native Willows and Cottonwoods to the detriment of the environment along the Santa Fe River.
Adding sterilized members to an insect population, however, to reduce or eliminate a disease-carrying population has decades of experience behind it. I noted it only because of the “unique” GM component. The use of such technology is neither “good” not “bad”, in and of itself. Yes, eradication of a species is scarey. But, there also is no “purpose” or native benefit in any particular species — except insofar it is part of a complex ecology — and may be absolutely irrelevent to the whole.
Since no one [yet, it’s true] is attempting to remove a single variety of mosquito from the whole planet, we’ll acquire more information about that removal in a particular environment and “neighborhood.
And — thanks for some thoughtful and informed commentary. Phew! Though, I’d hoped for additional creative humor from our crowd. Glowing testicles, indeed.
I say we create an army of sterile humans that target spammers and stupid people. How long would it take to wipe them out?
The DDT linkage to thin eggshells was never proven. A more likely scneario is that DDT was banned, and malaria came back. Only a few countries have had the courage to stand up to the UN and US’ environmentalist crazies to start using DDT again.
First of all, the use of sterile males has been used. Down here in South and Central America (IF YOU ARE GOOD AT GEOGRAPHY YOU SHOULD REALISE IT’S NOT HOUSTON) they have used sterile males to erradicate the screworm disease (maggots that like to eat live flesh.) They raise the maggots, separate the sexes (dunno how they do that) and when they’re in the pupa stage they bombard the males with radiation to sterilise them.