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Gene drive modified mosquitoes offer new tool for malaria elimination efforts
- cpfohl 2y agoThis is great. Mosquitoes are ecologically important pollinators. They’re also the worst human disease vectors. I do wish, though, that they would consider modifying whatever protein mosquitoes inject to make me itch so bad… Looking forward to seeing this play out.
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago> Mosquitoes are ecologically important pollinators Source? Because the research I’ve seen for disease-causing mosquitoes says nope [1]. [1] https://www.nature.com/articles/466432a https://www.nature.com/articles/466432a
- melagonster 2y ago>Without mosquitoes, thousands of plant species would lose a group of pollinators
- objektif 2y agoThis is nonsense perpetuated by wanna be naturalists. Disease carrying mosquitos could just cease to exist and we will be fine. This topic has been discussed countlessly even here.
- bilbo0s 2y agoHmm. Why is anyone talking about gene modification then? Serious question. Why not just get rid of mosquitos? If you can't just get rid of them, it's unlikely that you can modify the genes of all of them. If you can introduce something to modify the genes of all of them, then you can introduce something to eliminate them all as well. It seems that elimination is actually easier. Or at worst just as easy. What is it we gain from gene modification?
- kelseyfrog 2y agoBecause historically genociding a species carries a lot of baggage. It's not something you can intellectually reason someone into believing.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- dragonwriter 2y agoThat's not actually the reason—eradication efforts have not been avoided on this basis, indeed, mosquito eradication has long been a central pillar of efforts to control malaria. The reason for trying something else is that eradication efforts have rarely been completely successful and mosquitos are getting better and resisting them from the reproduction pressure imposed by the massive, sustained efforts at eradication, not because eradictation is something people want to avoid because “genociding” mosquitos is seen as undesirable.
- kelseyfrog 2y agoIf that's not the actual reason, then why do people keep discussing the moral implications of mosquito eradication? https://unherd.com/2018/09/commit-mosquito-genocide/ https://unherd.com/2018/09/commit-mosquito-genocide/ https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/ethicsproject/teaching-resources/should-we-kill-humanity-s-greatest-killer-the-ethics-of-mosquito-eradication.html https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/ethicsproject/teaching-resour... https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35408835 https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35408835 https://time.com/4319137/so-should-we-just-kill-them-all/ https://time.com/4319137/so-should-we-just-kill-them-all/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/09/13/what-would-happen-if-we-eliminated-the-worlds-mosquitoes/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/09/13/what-would-hap... https://www.livescience.com/what-if-all-mosquitoes-died https://www.livescience.com/what-if-all-mosquitoes-died https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK585176/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK585176/ https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/8/13/20754834/mosquitoes-blood-type-zika-dengue https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/8/13/20754834/mosquit...
- BobaFloutist 2y agoI think the problem is that the protein is an anti-coagulant, which is necessary for mosquito's feeding strategy but is also something you probably want your body to have a pretty robust reaction to and break down/expel pretty aggressively, lest each bite just keep bleeding well after the mosquito finishes feeding. Would for sure be nice if the immune response could skip the itching part though.
- gcanyon 2y agoThe idea of using gene drive on mosquitoes has been circulating for at least 8 years. [1] In that time, something like 4 million people have died of malaria, many millions more have been infected, and it is significantly impacting the economic growth of Africa. What will it take for us to pull the trigger on this? 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzcwTyr6cE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzcwTyr6cE
- stateofinquiry 2y agoThis idea is much more than 8 years old. If my memory serves, achieving this via gene drive was first proposed in the 1980s, by using "transposable elements". If you'd like to learn more check out the following, only 25 years old (I think it cites the earlier work): James, A. and Handler, A., editors (2000). Insect Transgenesis: Methods and Applications. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. ISBN: 0849320283 Creating the right effector gene, and attaching it to a transposable element (or some other gene drive system) as the Imperial researchers and colleagues have apparently done is only one part of the battle. Getting this to spread in nature from introductions of mass-reared mosquitoes.. well that will be a big challenge also. To say nothing of the permitting as you mention. The press release is remarkably devoid of any technical information on what they have accomplished.
- gcanyon 2y agoYep, the idea is older, I have vague memories of reading about it ~twenty years ago, but that video was the first thing I found in google so I went with that rather than overstate the case based on memories.
- baxtr 2y agoSlightly off-topic: Has anyone good recommendations against mosquitos? I hear UV traps are ok, but not perfect. And of course I have used the anti mosquito sprays. They don't last long though and I don't like the smell.
- idontwantthis 2y agoThe tennis racket style zappers are effective and pretty fun!
- GavCo 2y agothe noise is pretty hard to stomach
- idontwantthis 2y agoThe smell can be pretty bad too
- shoubidouwah 2y agoMosquito nets are best: put some as canopies above beds and enjoy sleeping without the dreaded ear buzz. If you live in a badly infested area, put them around doors / windows (there's retractable ones, you can fit them yourself). And finally, the superpower of just doing things: do some door to door / enlist your neighbors and hunt down the neighborhood stagnant waters.
- jajko 2y ago> do some door to door / enlist your neighbors and hunt down the neighborhood stagnant waters. Thats a good idea but don't think that by covering few neighbors you are covered - they can easily fly 5km depending on species if they have reason or get carried by wind. And all you need is ie one old tire laying around on the ground.
- devilbunny 2y agoI have some friends who live in the Houston suburbs. They bought one of the CO2-based mosquito traps. Seemed to work. Although it's absolute hell on plastics, DEET is incredibly effective as a mosquito repellent. At least in the US, you can buy 99%+ pure DEET at Home Depot.
- reedf1 2y agoI encourage all to look up what a gene drive is - find replace all mentions of 'mosquito' with 'human'. This makes a nuclear bomb look positively provincial - all it would take is one disgruntled post-doc. Only by the grace of god...
- jetrink 2y agoI just looked it up. The process involves modifying a fertilized egg or embryo to create a founder organism. The gene drive is designed to be inherited by more than 50% of the organism’s offspring and propagate through the population over successive generations. Because humans have fewer offspring and longer generation times compared to insects, it would take many generations and potentially hundreds of years for a gene drive introduced in a single human to spread widely through the population.
- reedf1 2y ago[flagged]
- reedf1 2y agoI apologies for my other reply - which was flagged - perhaps I was rude. You are wrong because there are ways to introduce a gene drive through pathogens - e.g. you introduce a self-generating CRISPR payload through a pathogen vector for which it is possible to completely saturate gen 0. Source: I worked in a leading biology lab, with biologists actually performing this research.
- keepamovin 2y agoThat is a cool idea. Like the mouse that takes the thorn out of the lion's foot: we could cure mosquitos of what ails them (even if they don't know it ails them, as they are carriers - but they die more so for being that), and the mosquito could become the friend of humanity.
- dinkblam 2y ago> and the mosquito could become the friend of humanity i'd rather not have them suck my blood even if there is no disease risk
- thworp 2y agoI take it you have never spent any time outside where there's lots of them. If you go out without protection, they'll mercilessly sting every bit of exposed skin. Depending on your genes and the mosquitoes', the stings can swell heavily. Some of them sting so deep that you cannot get rid of the itching and inflammation with a heat pen. As soon as you stand still, you'll find yourself in thick cloud of the bastards within 20 seconds. If you use repellent (picaridine does work to keep them from stining but isn't exactly healthy), they will still buzz around you and slowly drive you mad. If you use netting, some get through the inevitable gaps and some will obviously get inside your tent/car/house when you open them. The sound of thousands of them flying around you just triggers some primal revulsion. Around sundown, their activity gets so intense that it literally sounds like a drone, if they're a large variety it even sounds a bit like a distant hornet swarm. All in all, I don't think we can become friends. But at least they're more pleasant than black flies and deer flies.
- cosmic_cheese 2y agoThere are few things that set me off like hearing that telltale Doppler effect buzz whizz by my ear. Not as bad as those flies you mention for sure but still awful. I wonder if the unintended consequences would be tame enough to justify using a gene drive to breed human predation out of mosquitos.
- BobaFloutist 2y agoIf I could get a vaccine or some other treatment that got my body to not itch from their saliva, or even to just itch for a more limited amount of time, I could handle the rest (deadly disease excepted). Sure, they're annoying, but I don't actually care about them sucking my blood that much. I have plenty of the stuff, they only take a tiny amount, and they feed birds and bats with it. Having to spend hours afterward physically uncomfortable certainly tempers my magnanimity.
- jacksnipe 2y agoGene drives scare me. Being able to forcibly propagate a gene through a population seems like a strong candidate for causing an ecological disaster.