Australia created male mosquitoes with the ability to ‘poison’ female mosquitoes

A research team at Macquarie University is testing the “poison male mosquito technique” with a species of mosquito that transmits dengue fever, Zika and other viruses, Guardian reported on January 10. Specifically, they modified male mosquito genes to produce venom proteins from spiders and sea anemones. They will “poison” female mosquitoes with semen during mating, thereby shortening the lifespan of the female, helping to control the number of mosquitoes.

This species-specific approach can quickly stop outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever – of which 390 million cases occur each year worldwide – without the need to spray large amounts of harmful insecticides. local insects, according to Sam Beach, author of the new study.

“What we’re trying to achieve is: A male mosquito mates with a female, then the female immediately loses her life,” Beach said. He said injecting a new gene into newly laid mosquito eggs using a tiny glass needle is a tiring and tedious process.

In mosquitoes, only females suck blood. They usually mate within 24 – 48 hours after emergence, but can live and continue to feed on blood for several weeks, spreading the disease. According to research, the poisonous male mosquito technique can reduce blood sucking rate by 40% – 60%.

Other genetic biological control methods have used male mosquitoes to reduce the ability of young mosquitoes to survive, feed on blood or transmit diseases, but the new method targets female mosquitoes directly. “With this approach, we can immediately reduce the number of female mosquitoes, and then hopefully the transmission of diseases from mosquitoes will also decrease rapidly,” Beach said.

Insecticide resistance is a global problem, pushing scientists to develop other control methods, according to Dr. Tom Schmidt, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Melbourne. “Mosquitoes become resistant to insecticides very quickly and they can spread this ability,” he explains. The climate crisis is also bringing mosquitoes to places where they have never been before.

There are thousands of mosquito species but only a few carry disease, according to Professor Philip Weinstein, an infectious disease researcher at the University of Adelaide. The ideal solution would be to control without eradicating mosquitoes, Weinstein said, because they are pollinators and an important food source for fish and bats. “Ecosystem health – things in the environment including mosquitoes, water quality, air quality, climate change, biodiversity loss – all directly or indirectly affect human health” , he explained.