GM-mosquito may put bite on malaria

[hedgetrimmer]

~SNIP~
TARA WOMERSLEY HEALTH CORRESPONDENT


THE answer in the fight against malaria could lie in the mosquito’s own immune system, scientists have revealed.

Malaria kills more than one million people a year and is second only to tuberculosis in its impact on world health. However, experts have now identified two proteins that kill the malaria parasite in the mosquito’s gut.

The findings explain why some species of mosquito transmit malaria, and others kill the parasite before it can develop and therefore do not transmit it to humans.

By focusing on the proteins, scientists believe they could develop a genetically modified mosquito which would breed with others and put an end to the species that transmit malaria.

... more ...

link: http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=348382004

[mark11727]

1. I wouldn't mind seeing a GM-mosquito

that didn't bite at all.

[NickB79]

2. How do they overcome natural selection favoring malaria-carriers?

One theory of the development of malaria we discussed in my college biology class a few years ago was that there could be a symbiotic relationship between mosquitos and malaria. Mosquito populations capable of carrying malaria infect the local human population with the disease, and they become ill and unable to move rapidly. Being unable to swat the mosquitos, they become easy blood sources for the mosquitos. A population of mosquitos capable of spreading malaria would then be favored over a non-carrier population because it can obtain more blood and lay more eggs with the help of the disease. The fact that malaria only has a death rate of 1-3% also means that there is little danger of the prey (human) population dying out, which would cause a selection against malaria carrying. I don't know if this theory has ever been proven, but it seems logical enough that there might be truth to it. If that's the case, the GM mosquitos would be at a disadvantage and would be bred out of existance within a few generations.