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Apologies if I'm misunderstanding, but isn't this the same thing the article is talking about? In which case, 800,000 have already been released.
by jfoster 11y ago
Apologies if I'm misunderstanding, but isn't this the same thing the article is talking about? In which case, 800,000 have already been released.
- rgejman 11y agoNO. The article is talking about releasing sterile mosquitoes. This is a chronic intervention in the sense that you need to continue releasing sterile mosquitoes over time in order to keep populations low. The gene drive technology is a one-shot deal: you release a few mosquitos and a few generations later none of them can be infected with malaria.
- RobertoG 11y agoIt's not the same. The modified mosquitoes in the article breed sterile offspring. The modification doesn't go beyond that. This has been already done in the wild. As far as I know, genetic drive have not been used outside the labs. It works by "imposing" the inheritance of a selected gen even if it is bad for the individual. Theoretically, this could be used for change a full population or even exterminate it. It seems that a first candidate that everybody think about is mosquitoes.