BacktoCricaddict Posted July 28, 2021 Posted July 28, 2021 https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/07/28/1020932493/how-an-altered-strand-of-dna-can-cause-malaria-spreading-mosquitoes-to-self-dest For the first time, scientists have shown that a new kind of genetic engineering can crash populations of malaria-spreading mosquitoes. In the landmark study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature Communications, researchers placed the genetically modified mosquitoes in a special laboratory that simulated the conditions in sub-Saharan Africa, where they spread the deadly disease. The male mosquitoes were engineered with a sequence of DNA known as a "gene drive" that can rapidly transmit a deleterious mutation that essentially wipes out populations of the insects. As usual, eNGOs are crying a river: "This experiment is another reminder that there isn't a safe or ethical way to experiment with gene drives," Dana Perls of the environmental group Friends of the Earth wrote in an email to NPR. "Until there are robust, international, precautionary regulations and oversight, we need to hit the pause button on gene-drive organisms."
zen Posted July 28, 2021 Posted July 28, 2021 From the website: ”Years of additional research will be needed to prove the approach works and the mosquitoes would be safe to release into the wild. The project would also require regulatory approval and agreement by local residents in areas where those mosquitoes live, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia.” Link
maniac Posted July 28, 2021 Posted July 28, 2021 Oh god more mosquitoes. werent they going to bring back the wooly mammoth too? csnt comment on the scientific benefit or balancing the ecosystem but fk mosquitoes nevada 1
BacktoCricaddict Posted July 28, 2021 Author Posted July 28, 2021 25 minutes ago, zen said: From the website: ”Years of additional research will be needed to prove the approach works and the mosquitoes would be safe to release into the wild. The project would also require regulatory approval and agreement by local residents in areas where those mosquitoes live, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia.” Link Juxtaposed with: "In my opinion, the use of gene-drive mosquitoes are going to be effective against the spread of malaria or other vector-borne diseases," said Jeantine Lunshof, a bioethicist at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. "I think the benefits of it are so great, and I have not found convincing arguments that this would have considerable detrimental effects," she said.
zen Posted July 28, 2021 Posted July 28, 2021 (edited) 4 minutes ago, BacktoCricaddict said: Juxtaposed with: "In my opinion, the use of gene-drive mosquitoes are going to be effective against the spread of malaria or other vector-borne diseases," said Jeantine Lunshof, a bioethicist at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. "I think the benefits of it are so great, and I have not found convincing arguments that this would have considerable detrimental effects," she said. The above is stated as an opinion though. The report says that more research is needed before the mutant mosquitoes can be deemed safe to be released in the wild. Edited July 28, 2021 by zen
gattaca Posted July 28, 2021 Posted July 28, 2021 Man playing nature. We shouldn’t mosquito is 200 hundred million year species. Why change something unnaturally. We already know creating viruses and not controlling them is bad. Why would it be any different ? nevada 1
BacktoCricaddict Posted July 28, 2021 Author Posted July 28, 2021 (edited) 18 minutes ago, gattaca said: Man playing nature. We shouldn’t mosquito is 200 hundred million year species. Why change something unnaturally. We already know creating viruses and not controlling them is bad. Why would it be any different ? Nature is not always nice. Why should we consider natural changes to be safer/better than unnatural changes? Everything you eat is unnatural, unless you are a hunter-gatherer. Gain of function viruses bad. Loss of function mosquitoes good. Edited July 28, 2021 by BacktoCricaddict
BacktoCricaddict Posted July 28, 2021 Author Posted July 28, 2021 (edited) 3 hours ago, zen said: The above is stated as an opinion though. The report says that more research is needed before the mutant mosquitoes can be deemed safe to be released in the wild. Fair enough. Previous experience shows that this technology can be safely used. https://www.labiotech.eu/trends-news/oxitec-mosquito-dengue/ Water-soluble capsules containing the eggs of genetically modified mosquitoes developed by the UK company Oxitec have reduced the mosquito population in a dengue-infected urban environment in Brazil by 95% after 13 weeks. Aedes aegypti mosquitoes carry a number of infections including dengue, Zika, chikungunya, and yellow fever. Dengue has increased almost 15-fold over the last 20 years, and is a particular problem in Brazil. In order to reduce the spread of dengue, Oxitec releases genetically modified male Aedes mosquitoes into the environment. Once in the wild, these insects breed with local female mosquitoes and pass on a gene that causes female offspring to die at an early age. This method was reported to suppress the Aedes aegypti population by up to 96% in Brazil last year. Normally, Oxitec — recently sold by the US company Intrexon to the US VC firm Third Security — releases adult mosquitoes into the wild from airtight vehicles, which requires specialized equipment, infrastructure, and trained staff. However, with Brazil giving full approval of Oxitec’s genetically modified Aedes aegypti today, the company recently tested a way to scale up the release of the mosquitoes. Oxitec’s new technology encapsulates eggs containing male larvae from its genetically modified Aedes aegypti mosquito. The capsule is designed to dissolve in water and provide a cheaper and easier release method for non-experts. “It was definitely much more labor-intensive and therefore also more expensive to do this in the past,” Nathan Rose, Head of Regulatory Science at Oxitec, told me. “This makes it much more accessible and allows us to deploy in a much wider range of contexts as well.” Hopefully the environmental activists will not keep shifting the safety goalposts like they have done with ag biotech products and stall progress with unreasonable applications of the precautionary principle and no understanding of biology. Edited July 28, 2021 by BacktoCricaddict
gattaca Posted July 28, 2021 Posted July 28, 2021 20 minutes ago, BacktoCricaddict said: Nature is not always nice. Why should we consider natural changes to be safer/better than unnatural changes? Everything you eat is unnatural, unless you are a hunter-gatherer. Gain of function viruses bad. Loss of function mosquitoes good. Mosquitoes are food as well for birds and help pollination. Eliminating a species might have unknown repercussions. China already facing bee extinction so food will be hard to come by. May be mosquitoes can help to fill gap.
nevada Posted July 29, 2021 Posted July 29, 2021 Didn't they release some kind of engineered mosquitoes recently in Florida?
BacktoCricaddict Posted July 29, 2021 Author Posted July 29, 2021 (edited) 12 hours ago, gattaca said: Mosquitoes are food as well for birds and help pollination. Eliminating a species might have unknown repercussions. China already facing bee extinction so food will be hard to come by. May be mosquitoes can help to fill gap. (1) Mosquitoes are not pollinators; maybe in 20 million years they can evolve into such, but why would they? So, humans can benefit? Nature doesn't work that way. (2) There are 400 other non-blood-sucking Anopheles mosquito species (3000+ total mosquito species). Maybe other non-blood-sucking species can now survive better and serve as food for birds. The real question is - would you rather have the gene-drive mosquitoes or more toxic pesticides that not only kill mosquitoes but also other beneficial insects like bees? Edited July 29, 2021 by BacktoCricaddict Mariyam 1
BacktoCricaddict Posted July 29, 2021 Author Posted July 29, 2021 6 hours ago, nevada said: Didn't they release some kind of engineered mosquitoes recently in Florida? Yes, that is correct. First in Brazil with rousing success (article above). This Summer, they began field trials in Florida. https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/first-us-field-test-of-gm-mosquitoes-begins-in-florida-68735
bharathh Posted July 29, 2021 Posted July 29, 2021 I believe Singapore has been working with GM mosquitos for a while now. They apparently make the male mosquitos sterile or something - which means that mating with the existing females would not result in new offspring. This will ultimately lead to the fading away of mosquitos in the country. Not sure how that works as mosquitos could probably come in from Malaysia regularly or on planes and ships from other countries. Humans shouldn't tamper with nature this way.
BacktoCricaddict Posted July 29, 2021 Author Posted July 29, 2021 49 minutes ago, bharathh said: Humans shouldn't tamper with nature this way. The naturalistic fallacy. Since the beginning of civilization, we have been tampering with nature in some way. And prior to that, we were hunter-gatherers at the mercy of nature, teetering on the edge of extinction. Nature is not always better for us. Targeting a single gene to make sterile mosquitoes is no different than breeding crops to get food crops (some examples in the pic below). Or domesticating wolves to get dogs or aurochs to get cows. Moreover, nature has been swapping genes between species forever - there is nothing unnatural or taboo about it. Out of the 3000 sp of mosquito, we are controlling the spread of 2 or 3 blood suckers. We either do it this way or with pesticides.
Recommended Posts