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Genetically modified mosquitoes breed in Brazil

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Re: Genetically modified mosquitoes breed in Brazil

#11

Post by yakshaving_jgt »

learc83 wrote: post #3

The title is very misleading. "Strengthened" had nothing to do with the genetically modified genes. They released non-local mosquitoes that had been genetically modified, and because those mosquitoes bred with local mosquitoes (same species, just from a different location), the local mosquitoes now have a wider gene pool. The wider gene pool is what the article is referring to as being "strengthened", not any observa…

I’m ignorant on this topic, but aren’t animals with a wider gene pool usually more robust?

Re: Genetically modified mosquitoes breed in Brazil

#12

Post by fenwick67 »

CryptoBanker wrote: post #10
fenwick67 wrote: post #5

This page has some malicious ads on it that keep redirecting me to phishing sites (only on mobile Firefox apparently)

If you're using mobile FF why wouldn't you take advantage of its ability to use ad blockers?

Apparently I had ublock origin disabled for some reason, it's back on now.

Re: Genetically modified mosquitoes breed in Brazil

#14

Post by ianai »

CryptoBanker wrote: post #10
fenwick67 wrote: post #5

This page has some malicious ads on it that keep redirecting me to phishing sites (only on mobile Firefox apparently)

If you're using mobile FF why wouldn't you take advantage of its ability to use ad blockers?

That’s really not important. Redirecting anyone to malicious sites should be an immediate red line.

Re: Genetically modified mosquitoes breed in Brazil

#16

Post by AstralStorm »

yakshaving_jgt wrote: post #11
learc83 wrote: post #3

The title is very misleading. "Strengthened" had nothing to do with the genetically modified genes. They released non-local mosquitoes that had been genetically modified, and because those mosquitoes bred with local mosquitoes (same species, just from a different location), the local mosquitoes now have a wider gene pool. The wider gene pool is what the article is referring to as being "strengthened", not any observa…

I’m ignorant on this topic, but aren’t animals with a wider gene pool usually more robust?

We're not talking wider gene pool, were higher generation crosses with a modified subspecies. This is somewhat different as original sterile flies were designed to produce low viability first crosses.

It remains to be seen if they're more or less robust. Any outcome is possible. They could also be more or less fecund.

They will be harder to kill off via an engineered program like a disease or maybe sooner insecticides.

Re: Genetically modified mosquitoes breed in Brazil

#18

Post by shiyoon »

inciampati wrote: post #7

Life finds a way, and more so when populations are huge and genomes are diverse. Not exactly a surprising result. Maybe with another ten or twenty years of experience and technique in genome sequencing and interpretation we will be able to engineer a reliable gene drive.

the risk in making a mistake doing these trial runs could be huge though......they still don't know the impact this will have on the local ecosystem there across generations....Gene driving is a pandoras box that has the potential to decimate entire ecosystems by accident with irreversible consequences.

I keep thinking this is how the zombie apocalypse will happen lol

Re: Genetically modified mosquitoes breed in Brazil

#19

Post by noname120 »

The linked article (edit: it has been changed) is rather confusing so I'd like to highlight the fact that the underlying study[1] hints at two very specific observations:

1) The effectiveness started to decrease after 18 months: the population of Ae. aegypti progressively returned back to its normal levels—and this despite the continued release every week of 450 thousand males of the modified strain.

2) Some hybrid offspring between the release strain and the Jacobina population are sufficiently robust to be able to reproduce in nature. Even though it was thought previously that they would be too weak to reproduce and thus not pass the modified genes to their offspring.

The first observation is concerning because this means that this technique might only work in the short-term. This is probably not a silver bullet to eradicate mosquito-borne diseases.

The second observation is probably much more worrying because it hints at unwanted side effects. We don't know yet the exact consequences of having these hybrid strains roaming free in nature. The most likely explanation however is that since they are weaker, they'll be progressively selected out and disappear.

[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-49660-6.pdf

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