Suicide Mosquitoes
What are they and how do they work?
Facts About Mosquitoes
fun fact only female mosquitoes bight males do not. Over 3 million people die from getting diseases like malaria and dengue from mosquitoes bites. 20,000 people are affected by malaria or dengue a day.
GMO Mosquitoes
CDC and Oxitec have been working on the process for the GMO suicide mosquitoes by reading the DNA strand to find the gene SM1 and read code there DNA sequence to have the viral Tymidine kinase gene. By doing this it will stop the development of malaria parasite in the mosquitoes. Malaria is very easily transferred, if a mosquitoes bites organism that's inflected then moves on to bite another healthy organism, the healthy organism is now infected. When having the Thymidine gene expressed it reduces almost stops the malaria from developing in the blood stream.
Good vs. Bad
- Neutralizing strains of tropical diseases
- Kills off spring and cant live past larval
- New pest control
- Stop spread of disease
- Easily mutated
- Some larval are unaffected by it
- Could hurt local ecosystems
- Mostly targets male mosquitoes
Current Status
The GMO mosquitoes have been released in certain areas in Africa and Brazil. CDC and Oxitec are also trying to have them be released in to the Florida Keys.