Genetically-manipulated male mosquitoes could eliminate females

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Genetically-manipulated male mosquitoes could eliminate females

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B. Coxworth,  New Atlas,  2020.

Several years ago, we heard how scientists were looking at eradicating malaria-carrying mosquitoes by making the females infertile. Now they’re going a step further, by eliminating the females altogether.

Led by Prof. Andrea Cristani of Imperial College London, an international research team started with a caged population of Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes – this is the mosquito group that’s chiefly responsible for the transmission of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa.

The scientists then created a genetically-manipulated version of the males, in which a DNA-cutting enzyme destroyed the X chromosome during the production of sperm. When those males mated with conventional females, the offspring were predominantly male – this is because while just one X and a Y chromosome trigger the development of males, two X’s are required for females.

Ordinarily, the X-destroying gene would only be passed on to about 50 percent of the offspring. Utilizing what’s known as gene drive technology, however, the researchers were able to boost that figure to almost 100 percent. As a result, over just a few generations, the caged population of mosquitoes became entirely male – it was thus unsustainable, and collapsed as a result.