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If I understood parent comment, it's that any unmodified mosquitos would quickly fill in any gaps from modified mosquitos who died. What we need is a gene bomb
by jvanderbot 6y ago
If I understood parent comment, it's that any unmodified mosquitos would quickly fill in any gaps from modified mosquitos who died.
What we need is a gene bomb. Create a gene that makes mosquitos more resistant to gene attacks, but 10 generations later creates infertility. Spend 10 generations dropping gene attacks to ensure those bomb'd mosquitos proliferate and reproduce.
Still, you'll never get all of them.
- JulianMorrison 6y agoGene drives are a way to spread a modification to all of a population because the genetic change has more than a 50% chance of making it into a gamete, all the way up to 100%, so it multiplies up over generations. And yes it can be combined with a generational ticking time-bomb.
- jvanderbot 6y agoOk, honest question: What if there's two populations that don't mix? A Gene drive doesn't just teleport, right?
- JulianMorrison 6y agoIf they literally never mix, it doesn't reach the population it isn't in. But that's a bigger ask than you'd think. Stuff moves around, on its own, and often, on humans and human artefacts. Like for example, mosquitoes breeding in a puddle on a boat. This is basically a worry people have about gene drives, that they will jump from places where they are wanted, to wild populations that are doing nobody any harm, and eradicate whole species.