Researchers publish findings on GM mosquitoes

| 31/10/2011







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Category: Science and Nature

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  1. Epidemiologist says:

    The idea was well motivated in principle, and was seen as part of the fight against Dengue fever .  Releasing sterile mosquitoes dilutes out those that can produce viable offspring.  According to a full article by Bijal Trivedi in the current November Scientific American,  it has been tried with irradiated insects , but this appeared to be first ever  try outdoors  of this kind with millions of mosquitoes  released.  She states that this was initiated by the biotechnology company Oxytec , and that there was  prior announcement in a five minute spot on a Cayman nightly news broadcast plus  a pamphlet that described the mosquitoes as sterile, “avoiding an mention of genetic manipulation”.  In fact the new born females are genetically engineered  to die by producing a toxin that impairs their muscle function.

    She also states that an experiment is to be performed on Grand Cayman later this year in which two genetically engineered strains (the second strain apparently being one in which the male mosquito also dies) will mate with the normal mosquito population.  The concerns will be the effects of random mutation and crossing over between sections of DNA in this three way mix.

    The reason that they can breed repeatedly in the laboratory production plant but can only and mate once after release is that prior to release they are exposed to an antibiotic that prevents the autodestruct mechanism kicking in. A somewhat similar idea was used in the fictional book and movie Jurassic Park, where dinosaurs were genetically engineered so that they required   the amino acid  lysine.  This was  supposed to prevent the cloned dinosaurs from surviving outside the enclosed area by forcing them to be dependent on lysine supplements provided by the park's staff.  As their hired Chaos theorist Dr. Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum)  noted, nature nonetheless  found a way.  

    That anything can foul up is most unlikely to occur on Cayman, but how much “most unlikely” is, is  what is currently raising concern in the US. Mutation and crossing over is basically random, and the consequences for the new DNA that arises are extremely poorly understood.