Genetic trick to make mosquitoes malaria resistant passes key test
Genetic trick to make mosquitoes malaria resistant passes key test
35307Michael Le Page, New Scientist, 2025-12-10 17:06:06.
A genetic technology known as a gene drive could help prevent malaria by spreading genes in wild mosquitoes that stop them transmitting the parasite. Tests in a lab in Tanzania have now confirmed that one potential gene drive should achieve this if it were released in the country. “It would be a game-changing technology, that’s for sure,” says George Christophides at Imperial College London.
A specific piece of DNA in the genome of an animal is normally passed on to only half its offspring, because a parent’s DNA is divided in half among egg or sperm. Gene drives increase this proportion, meaning a bit of DNA can spread rapidly through a population even if it provides no evolutionary benefit. There are many natural gene drives that work via all kinds of mechanisms – perhaps even in some human populations – and in 2013, biologists developed artificial gene drives using CRISPR gene-editing technology, which works by copying pieces of DNA from one chromosome to another.
The idea is to use these drives to spread bits of DNA that block malaria transmission – but which bits? Christophides reported in 2022 that the development of malaria parasites inside mosquitoes can be greatly reduced by two tiny proteins, one derived from honeybees and the other from the African clawed frog.
