Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

750M genetically modified mosquitoes to be released in Florida

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 159 posts

Re: 750M genetically modified mosquitoes to be released in Florida

#61

Post by TimTheTinker »

KMag wrote: post #53
TimTheTinker wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think many people have a negative gut response to genetic modification, especially because DNA/RNA as a code has multiple overlaid meanings besides protein sequences. So there could be unintended consequences. Personally, I’d most question the potential effect on the food chain—what if birds, for example, started developing allergies or other autoimmune issues because of this or other new/modified proteins in resul…

> new/modified proteins in resulting male mosquitoes that their immune systems don’t recognize What have I missed about the immune system interacting with mosquitoes? The primary immune response I'm aware of that an organism would have with its food would be a food allergy. Are you worried that the genes would jump from a human-biting mosquito species to a bird-biting species and the males would somehow mutate to als…

I was referring to birds that eat mosquitoes and other insects potentially getting something analogous to a food allergy.

Note that only female mosquitoes bite - blood is a necessary component for their eggs to form.

Re: 750M genetically modified mosquitoes to be released in Florida

#62

Post by magoghm »

k8ram wrote: post #60
Fwirt wrote: post #15

Whenever this comes up I always find it interesting that nobody comments on the now 60-year ongoing program that eradicated the screwworm fly from the US by doing pretty much the same thing: releasing millions of genetically altered (sterilized by radiation!) screwworms that mate with the native population. I have no comment on the positive or negative outcomes of the environmental modifications that both programs ca…

Isn't there a difference between sterilization, and genetic intervention, on potential unknowns? I am not saying that the first one was entirely safe, but explicit gene editing seems to be much more risky than sterilizing.

Sterilized by radiation sounds much more risky to me. You don't know what else was changed by the radiation. With gene editing at least you know what you changed.

Re: 750M genetically modified mosquitoes to be released in Florida

#63

Post by millstone »

Reading wikipedia, the Sterile Insect Technique seems awesome! I hope someone knowledgeable can answer some questions:

1. If a fertile female mates with a sterile male, why does she not just mate again?

2. How are males selected?

3. How are males sterilized? Wikipedia refers to "irradiation of reproductive cells" but this can't be so precisely targeted...right?

Re: 750M genetically modified mosquitoes to be released in Florida

#66

Post by sriku »

One of the arguments presented in the article is that the program would alter the gene pool by 1% only. I'm curious where the 1% comes from and why something that might feel "small" in another context should also apply here. What if the tolerance limit was 0.01%? How do we determine this gene pool variability tolerance?

Re: 750M genetically modified mosquitoes to be released in Florida

#68

Post by digitaltrees »

blisterpeanuts wrote: post #56
digitaltrees wrote: post #38

What are birds going to eat now? asking for a friend.

Tell your friend that there are about 5,000 known species of mosquito, of which about 100 feed on mammalian blood, and out of those 9 are disease carriers. If we can target those specific 9 or some subset thereof, like Aedes aegypti as Oxitec is doing, we at least reduce the misery index while preserving 99.9% of the prey items consumed by birds, dragonflies, and other predators. Also, there's at least one study that…

This is why I love hacker news. Awesome response!

Re: 750M genetically modified mosquitoes to be released in Florida

#69

Post by michaelmrose »

magoghm wrote: post #62
k8ram wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't there a difference between sterilization, and genetic intervention, on potential unknowns? I am not saying that the first one was entirely safe, but explicit gene editing seems to be much more risky than sterilizing.

Sterilized by radiation sounds much more risky to me. You don't know what else was changed by the radiation. With gene editing at least you know what you changed.

If you sterilize an animal it doesn't reproduce. These insects only don't reproduce well.
Post reply on HN