Flightless mosquitoes may prevent disease
Scientists genetically engineer a new strain of female mosquitoes that cannot fly, hoping the handicap will curb dengue fever outbreaks.
GROUNDED: Since only female mosquitoes bite, the new strain will prevent females from flying. (Photo: dr_relling/Flickr) 
link:
Comments
Perhaps we are looking at this from the wrong angle. Mosquitos have a very important role in our ecosystem, they spread disease. When population of, rats say, get out of hand, it's nature's job to provide diseases to bring the population back down. Humans, as much as we'd hate to think about it, are pests. We are invasive, destructive, and Aggressive. Honestly, our numbers are getting out of hand. Mosquitos are just one of nature's insignificant defenses against us, and the fact that we are.... More
Mosquitoes arnt as stupid as you may think. Mosquitoes use noise frequencies to find a mate and breed so there wont be many issues with breeding so its not like the male wouldnt be able to find any females anywhere. But who says they wont become similar to another really anoying blood sucker called the tick considering the idea is to not have them suck blood at all. But as a reminder to everyone the reason they suck blood in the first place is because they need a high source of protein which.... More
All the posters here seem more concerned about the
miniscule contribution this horrendous pest contributes
to the planet than the pernicious damage it does to
human life, especially little children. What's wrong with
you people? ? This is a wonderful step in the right
direction. PLEASE MAKE IT HAPPEN ( if only to make my
gardening in Alabama more pleasurable, I hate the
@%#!ing things).
I would engineer them to be partially flightless, so they can exist in the food chain, but their location can be contained. (Not in my backyard!)
Haven't these people ever seen the movie "Mimic"!!!!
If the females cannot fly then they will starve to death
Killer bees weren't intentionally released nor are they genetically modified. There was a breach in the facility where they were being hybridized in South America. They're a cross-breed between tame Euopean honey bees and wild African bees therefore not GE.
We have already proven multiple times that any attempt by us to genetically alter a species ends badly for us and the planet. Sure it sounds like a good plan but we have no way of knowing what creating a ground walking mosquito will do. Look at killer bees- that was originally an attempt to breed super honey producers, which worked. unfortunatley it also created a mean *** invasive species that everyone agrees now in hindsight was a very bad idea. Humans arent as smart as we like to think we.... More
I feel people give Mosquitos a bad rap... Ah forget it I hate them too. But instead of making them incapable of breeding, can we just breed some huge Dragonflies? That would be awesome.
Yes, mosquitos are everywhere, there's no way to get rid of them permanently, but that's not what this project is aimed toward.
This is for places like the sub-Saharan Africa, which have millions of deaths every year from Malaria and Yellow fever (spread by mosquitos), most of them young children.
I applaud this attempt at saving lives. No reason to waste money on finding a cure - target the problem that's spreading it.
Earth's ecosystems tend to do well that is until one of two things; natural disaster or the folly of man
I agree with those who state this will fail because of the lack of defense on the part of the flightless females and even they managed to take out the flying females it will be comparable to China's abundance of males and lack there of in females.
Perhaps your efforts would be better spent finding a cure for these illnesses.
Yes, a cure would be nice, but how long will that take? There're many people already working on ways to prevent these diseases, why can't we try another option?
If you're a geneticist who is good with insects and wants to help but you're not a pathologist, would you help?
Although not all diseases are curable or preventable because of the way the virus infects the host.
The flightless females have nothing whatever to do with the process. They are the end result of the process.
The difference in the abundance of males in China and male mosquitos is that Chinamen aren't part of a food chain.
Natural selection will be in favor of flying females, since the flightless variety can't evade predators and are more likely to be eaten. This project will decrease their numbers for a while, but they'll catch up in time. Too bad.
What about bats? Do they eat the males and end up with bat females walking the sidewalks at night? Just in: recent sales of golf clubs has soared. A spike in in beer sales after sundown has also risen. News at 11.
Does anyone know if mosquitoes fill an ecologically-important niche, and what the results of this effort might be? Instead of the pop-culture belief that all creatures must be important for some reason, I would prefer to hear anything specific from an expert, and I would also hope that such things are investigated seriously first! But if nothing notable is found, I look forward to this demonstration of man's control over nature.
I know that Canadian geese have their young at the same time as the arctic mosquito hatch, they feed on them exclusively.
I'd gather that mosquitoes exist simply as part of the food chain - They breed to feed other, larger animals. If I were to have a concern, it would be the mating behaviour of the males - Since the female mosquitoes are the ones to lay eggs and breed, how can we be sure that any replacement behaviour we introduce into the system will not disrupt the species? That is, how do we know males will be prolific breeders if the females become wingless?
Also, it seems apropos that my captcha.... More
Nature can and will adapt. It always has. Good riddance.
We should do likewise with humans that carry genetic diseases. A readily avaiilable test is all it would take and if found defective, said person is made infertile. That would stop human suffering on a global scale as well.
How about we start with people who can not spell correctly?
Then we can focus on those who can't recognize sarcasm. Yes...they definitely have to go.
Hitler had the same idea. Wasn't great when he thought of it either.
No matter where you are the mosquito will remain a nuisance. They are found around the globe, literally from pole to pole, according to Tempe pest control. Understanding that we can’t get away from them, and that attempts to eradicate them will fail, we must learn what exactly we can do to coexist comfortably with the pest. The first thing to know is that while infection with a fatal disease from a mosquito bite is possible it is not.... More
If the females can't fly, it would be difficult, if not impossible, for the males to find them. If the males can't find them, they can't mate. If they can't mate, the mosquitoes may eventually die out. To us humans that's a good thing, but what about the rest of nature?
If a modified male mosquito breeds with a female mosquito, the female offspring will be unable to fly. If they are unable to fly, then they will be unable to mate and feed to support their brood, so they will be selected against by mother nature. I think the hybrid would die out rather quickly, after a single generation. Or am I missing something here?
The females would be unable to mate and breed, but the first generation would see males that were able to fly and breed with further females. Each successive generation would see dead-end females, but males that were still genetically potent. This plan is not to have the females continue to breed, but to have each generation produce males that can infect the next generation until the population is unable to support itself and collapses.
A fascinating concept. Are there any drawbacks to turning a genetically-modified species loose in the wild?
