Malaria mosquitoes eliminated in lab by creating all-male populations

MAY 12, 2020

by Hayley Dunning, Imperial College London

A modification that creates more male offspring was able to eliminate populations of malaria mosquitoes in lab experiments.

A team led by Imperial College London spread a genetic modification that distorts the sex ratio through a population of caged Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes using 'gene drive' technology.

The team's modification causes mosquitoes to produce more male offspring, eventually leading to no females being born and a total collapse in the population. This represents the first successful sex-distorter gene drive ever created, a goal for scientists as these modifications are expected to be extremely effective at controlling natural mosquito populations.

There were 228 million cases of malaria in 2018, and 405,000 deaths, with new interventions needed to move towards malaria eradication. There are around 3500 species of mosquito worldwide, of which only 40 related species can carry malaria. The team's modification was applied to Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes, the main malaria vector in sub-Saharan Africa.

The hope is that Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes carrying a sex-distorter gene drive would be released in the future, spreading the male bias within local malaria-carrying mosquito populations and causing them to collapse.

As only females bite and take blood meals, only they can pass on malaria, so the modification could have a double effect by biasing the population towards fewer females even before the population collapses.

The lab-based experiments were performed with caged populations of mosquitoes, and more experiments are needed before the team consider releasing any modified mosquitoes in the wild. The results are published today in Nature Biotechnology.

Lead scientist Professor Andrea Crisanti, from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial, said: "This study represents a key milestone in the long-sought objective to bias the progeny of the human malaria mosquito so that only non-biting males are produced. Having a proven driving sex-distorter opens a new avenue for scientists to develop genetic vector controls of malaria with the aim of eradicating the disease."

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Butterflies steal DNA of zombie wasps in natural genetic modification

Scientist have found DNA of wasps in butterflies showing that genes can pass between species

By Sarah Knapton, Science Editor

7:00PM BST 17 Sep 2015

Butterflies 'steal’ the genes of wasps to make them more resistant to disease , scientists have found, in first evidence of natural genetic modification in the animal kingdom.

Although campaigners have long warned of the dangers of GM, it appears that some animals are already altering their own genomes, naturally selecting beneficial virus-fighting DNA from other creatures.

Spanish and French researchers discovered that genes which should only occur in parasitic wasps are present in the genetic makeup of many butterflies including Monarchs.

Monarchs and other butterflies and moths are targeted by parasitic braconid wasps who lay their eggs inside caterpillars and inject a virus to squash the caterpillar’s immune response which would usually drive out the invaders.

Bracoviruses work by merging with the DNA of their hosts, altering gene expression. They even alter the brains of caterpillars, effectively turning them into zombies, so that when the wasp larvae emerge from their hosts the caterpillar spins them a protective cocoon and becomes a bodyguard, fighting off other insects who would do them harm.

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Male-only Gene Trick Could Leave Invasive Fish Species Floundering (Op-Ed)

By Ron Thresher, CSIRO | May 13, 2014 01:19am ET

This article was originally published at The Conversation.The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

A genetic modification that creates male-only populations could give us a new weapon against invasive fish such as carp that plague our waterways.

“Daughterless technology”, which works by removing females so a population can no longer breed, has previously been used to tackle mosquitoes. But new CSIRO research shows that it also works on fish.

Continued

Human-Animal Hybrids: Sick And Twisted Chimeras Are Being Created In Labs All Over The Planet

Written byMichael T. Snyder

thesleuthjournal.com

Did you know that scientists all over the globe are creating extremely bizarre human-animal chimeras? Over the past decade, there have been some absolutely stunning advances in the field of genetic modification. Today, it is literally possible for college students to create new lifeforms in their basements. Unfortunately, laws have not kept pace with these advancements, and in many countries there are very few limits on what scientists are allowed to do. As you will read about below, extremely creepy human-animal hybrids are now being created in laboratories all over the planet. And this is just the stuff that is publicly admitted. Can you imagine what kind of sick and twisted experiments are taking place in the dark corners of secret labs that nobody knows about? And what happens if these creatures get out into the wild and starting mating? At that point, it would be nearly impossible to “put the genie back into the bottle”. Scientists seem very eager to test the limits of what is possible, but what they are unleashing may have consequences that none of us ever dreamed possible.

Just the other day, we learned that scientists have created mice that have an artificial human chromosome “in every cell of their bodies”.

So what should we call such creatures? They are definitely not fully mice anymore.

Scientists are hailing this as a “breakthrough” which could lead to all sorts of new treatments for disease. The following is from an article entitled “Mice with human chromosomes – the genetic breakthrough that could revolutionise medicine“…

Read More At:

http://www.getholistichealth.com/35644/human-animal-hybrids-sick-and-twisted-chimeras-are-being-created-in-labs-all-over-the-planet/