Dr Mauro Marrelli and his colleagues from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, wrote in PNAS: "To our knowledge, no-one has previously reported a demonstration that transgenic mosquitoes can exhibit a fitness advantage over non-transgenics."
American genetically modified corn DNA has found its way into Mexico. Just this month a popular (as in you've probably eaten some) type of rice recalled over gene contamination right here in the USofA.
They can't keep things with roots under control...and they're reflecting on designing an organism WITH WINGS for general release?
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| The GM mosquitoes could be identified by their green fluorescent eyes [P6: Oh, that makes me feel MUCH better.] |
GM mosquito 'could fight malaria'
A genetically-modified (GM) strain of malaria-resistant mosquito has been created that is better able to survive than disease-carrying insects.
It gives new impetus to one strategy for controlling the disease: introduce the GM insects into wild populations in the hope that they will take over.
The insect carries a gene that prevents infection by the malaria parasite.
Details of the work by a US team appear in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.
In the laboratory, equal numbers of genetically modified and ordinary "wild-type" mosquitoes were allowed to feed on malaria-infected mice.
As they reproduced, more of the GM, or transgenic, mosquitoes survived. After nine generations, 70% of the insects belonged to the malaria-resistant strain.
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