Malaysia Releases Genetically Modified Mosquitoes

Blessed_by_the_Cow writes "Apparently, Malaysian scientists have released 6,000 genetically modified male mosquitoes into the the wild. These bloodsuckers have been altered to have shorter lifespans. The basic idea behind it is to help slow down the spread of Dengue fever by killing off the mosquitoes faster."

Comments

Correction for the Summary

[eldavojohn]

These bloodsuckers have been altered to have shorter lifespans.

Actually the modified Aedes aegypti in question are not bloodsuckers. From the AFP article:

In the first experiment of its kind in Asia, about 6,000 male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes were released ...

Like Homo sapiens, only the females drain the life out of their victims. The male Aedes aegypti only feed on plant juices (but I'm guessing pass the short lifespan trait on more effectively).

Moderators, ball's in your court.

Re:Correction for the Summary

[kenrblan]

For your Karma's sake, you should hope the moderators are male and not overly politically correct. Otherwise, kudos on a good one.

Re:Correction for the Summary

[Anonymous Coward]

Fortunately, mosquitoes don't have bank accounts.

Re:Correction for the Summary

[rhook]

Male mosquito's cannot drink blood, females of some mosquito species require a meal of blood in order to lay eggs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito#Feeding_habits_of_adults

"Both male and female mosquitoes are nectar feeders, but the females of many species are also capable of drinking blood from many mammals. Females do not require blood for their own survival, but they do need supplemental substances such as protein and iron to develop eggs.

With regard to host location, carbon dioxide and organic substances produced from the host, humidity, and optical recognition play important roles. In Aedes the search for a host takes place in two phases. First, the mosquito exhibits a nonspecific searching behavior until the perception of host stimulants then it follows a targeted approach.[14]

Most mosquito species are crepuscular (dawn or dusk) feeders. During the heat of the day most mosquitoes rest in a cool place and wait for the evenings, although they may still bite if disturbed. Some species, like Asian tiger mosquito, are known to fly and feed during daytime.

Both male and female are nectar feeders.
Mosquitoes are adept at infiltration and have been known to find their way into residences via deactivated air conditioning units.[15]

Prior to and during blood feeding, they inject saliva into the bodies of their source(s) of blood. This saliva serves as an anticoagulant: without it, the female mosquito's proboscis would quickly become clogged with blood clots. Female mosquitoes hunt their blood host by detecting carbon dioxide (CO2) and 1-octen-3-ol from a distance.

Mosquitoes of the genus Toxorhynchites never drink blood.[16] This genus includes the largest extant mosquitoes, the larvae of which prey on the larvae of other mosquitoes. These mosquito eaters have been used in the past as mosquito control agents, with varying success.[17]"

Re:Correction for the Summary

[StikyPad]

you should hope the moderators are male

Wait, are you saying females are too hot-headed, insecure, and vindictive to acknowledge their succubus-like traits?

Re:Correction for the Summary

[kaizokuace]

I dunno what to say, I'm busy suckin on plant juice.

How will they compete?

[afidel]

How do they expect these shorter lived males to outcompete their wild bretheren? If the trait is to become sufficiently distributed in the population for this to make a difference then they would have to have some method of making them superior breeders to offset the shortened window in which to breed.

Re:How will they compete?

[Locke2005]

They were bred for really short life spans and really big penises. Plus, the scientists supplied each one of them with a tiny red Ferrari!

Re:How will they compete?

[arivanov]

Dunno, in order to do that you need to release not 6000 but 6000000 the way they did it with screwworm flies in the south of the USA (and continue in Latin America).

The screwworm control method is to release flies sterilised through radiation by the truckload so that most eggs are from at least one sterile parent so they do not hatch - hence no screwworm damage to lifestock. Year after a year after a year until there is no more screwworm fly (USA in 1982).

So there is a scientific basis for this, just clearly not enough mosquitoes being released.

Frickin' Lasers.

[nametaken]

Well sure, this is clever and all... but I still prefer the shock-and-awe approach to mosquito control:

http://www.ted.com/talks/nathan_myhrvold_could_this_laser_zap_malaria.html

You can just f-fwd to the 12m mark for the craziness.

Need a GM to alter FEMALE mosquito's lifespan

[Nyetworker]

What they really need is a genetic modification that leaves the male mosquitos essentially unaltered, but causes the females to have a shortened lifespan, ideally unable to reach sexual maturity. GM males would continue to compete with normal males for surviving females; each successful mating by a GM male would produce a new generation of GM males to continue the process, but all females of that generation would die before ever having a chance to bite a human or breed.

Re:Think of the children!

[Samantha Wright]

IAABiologist, and what will most likely happen is that their experiment will die off without affecting the rest of the population. The actual process of disabling or excising a gene would probably take a while, TBH; it's way more likely that evolution will simply select against the released mosquitoes. In order to win, Malaysia would have to replace all of the males in the population, which is just silly, or give their mosquitoes some advantage, like breeding more aggressively (which is how our favourite examples of humans screwing with ecosystems, alien invasive species, become invasive.) But that's not even compatible with their goal!

What they really need to do is to poison the food supply: vaccinate humans with something that targets mosquitoes only.

Comments funny, Dengue serious

[RobertB-DC]

I know the comments so far follow the easy pattern -- either "what could possibly go wrong, lol" and "doesn't evolution kinda favor *longer* lives?" And I'm not entirely comfortable with human populations being used as guinea pigs for disease research -- cf. Tuskeegee et. al.

But Dengue Fever is some serious stuff. It's called "break-bone fever" for a reason -- the muscle and joint pain is debilitating, and lasts for weeks or months. It's one of those things that keeps poor communities impoverished -- each person infected requires care-giving, taking two or three healthy people out of the economy for every one infected.

There's no vaccine, and nothing on the way until 2015 at least -- like many tropical diseases, there's more money to be made from lengthening a rich white guy's m@nh00d than there is in lengthening a poor brown woman's life.

So as leery as I am of making random modifications to the DNA of an uncontrollable pest... I can at least understand the motivation.

The Malaysian remake of Blade Runner

[j. andrew rogers]

We know how this ends, a group of genetically enhanced mosquitos will break into the Malaysian laboratory leaving a trail of bodies while being pursued by Rick "The Flyswatter" Deckard.

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe... sweaty white skin on the shoulder of a tourist... I watched bug lights glitter in the darkness at the Tannhauser Gate..."