Genetic Engineering To Control Mosquitoes:
Gene-drive technology has been used in outdoor but controlled conditions in India, Brazil, and Panama to genetically manipulate mosquitoes.
- Researchers at Imperial College London genetically enhanced a gene expressed in the midgut of mosquitoes to secrete two antimicrobial substances called magainin 2 and melittin.
- They are detrimental to the Plasmodium parasite’s development in the midgut and also reduce the lifespan of female mosquitoes.
- Computational modelling studies have suggested that this approach could significantly disrupt malaria transmission.
- Gene-drive technology is a type of genetic engineering technique that modifies genes.
- This technology was conceived by Austin Burt, a professor at Imperial College London.
- This technique could be an effective way to eradicate nuisance species, such as malaria-causing mosquitoes.
- Under this technique, mosquitoes will selectively inherit some genes rather than the inheritance to follow the rules of Mendelian genetics.
- In this, a protein cuts the mosquito’s DNA at a part that doesn’t encode a particular sequence in the genome.
- This triggers a natural mechanism in the cell containing the DNA to repair it and forces the cell to incorporate a sequence called the drive sequence into the damaged portion.
