I really didn't get this idea when it was first proposed, and I still don't. I'm about as far from an expert as you can get, but it seems to me that if you modify the genes of a wild population such that they produce less viable offspring you've just reduced their evolutionary fitness. That would leave a gap to be exploited by the members of the species whose genes you did not modify. On the surface anyway it seems like that might be what happened here.
Genetically modified mosquitoes breed in Brazil
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Re: Genetically modified mosquitoes breed in Brazil
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
And going online without an ad blocker is simply irresponsible.
Re: Genetically modified mosquitoes breed in Brazil
#23Hope scientists had a plan B and plan C in place.
Re: Genetically modified mosquitoes breed in Brazil
#24Re: Genetically modified mosquitoes breed in Brazil
#25The 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
#26The 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 o…
3) Two other species from different regions moved in during the population drop. Now they're I interbreeding which may lead to more robust variants.
Re: Genetically modified mosquitoes breed in Brazil
#27At a macro level, one would expect that the 'baseline' mosquito population represents an equilibrium level due to competing factors within in the local environment.
While it seems very clear that releasing the GM mosquitos would never permanently alter this equilibrium, it's not obvious to me (not a biologist) that it would even work with continuing release of the GM mosquitos. It seems to assume that the limiting factor on population is the number of offspring. If the limiting factor were competition for food or some other resource it seems like other mosquitos would fill in to replace the GM ones who died early.