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Brazilians welcome genetically-modified mosquito to help fight dengue fever

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Re: Brazilians welcome genetically-modified mosquito to help fight dengue fever

#61

Post by riffraff »

wprl wrote: post #46
wyager wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Green revolution did, but that wasn't GMO. The green revolution did a lot of good, but GMO is potentially doing even more. Have you looked at modern strains of GM rice? That stuff is absolutely amazing. Incredibly drought and flood resistance, and can thrive in a huge range of environmental conditions. As GMO tech progresses, we'll probably just see better and better stuff. Imagine plants with antifreeze proteins to…

As GMO tech progresses, we are seeing strange side effects like interference with the monarch butterfly and bees, soil depletion, a drive for deeper genetic modification as weeds and insects adapt to old versions, a draconian patent structure effecting farmer livelihood, just to name a few problems. Who would blame anyone for choosing food over starvation? But GMO is not a solution for the world, and it is not a sust…

the fact that the rich world did and keeps doing horrible things to the poor world is a given.

But isn't there an issue with considering the indigenous population sustainable?

What I mean is, aren't many countries on a "sustainable" agriculture consumption only in the sense that malnutrition is the norm?

Re: Brazilians welcome genetically-modified mosquito to help fight dengue fever

#62

Post by hrjet »

Pxtl wrote: post #43
hrjet wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> those animals (birds) which do eat them could just switch to other insects If those animals can switch, so can bacteria and virii switch their carriers.

Other carriers aren't shared flying hypodermic needles.

If they are carriers, they would have a way of carrying.

Re: Brazilians welcome genetically-modified mosquito to help fight dengue fever

#63

Post by erkkie »

ekianjo wrote: post #49

Note that the article makes it seem that the Dengue fever is fatal in most cases, but it certainly is NOT. Most of the time people who get it will recover within 10 days, even though they will be severely incapacitated during that period. Most people who actually die from Dengue are people who were already weakened by something else or older populations.

One of the problems with dengue is that once you've been infected with one strain, getting infected with another one is much more likely to have serious consequences. That's a problem for people who travel for example.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dengue_fever It is not entirely clear why secondary infection with a different strain of dengue virus places people at risk of dengue hemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome. The most widely accepted hypothesis is that of antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE). The exact mechanism behind ADE is unclear.

Re: Brazilians welcome genetically-modified mosquito to help fight dengue fever

#64

Post by danieltillett »

jimworm wrote: post #57

I've recently been thinking about the possibility of a genetic disease for mosquitoes, transmitted down male lines but killing only females of the same brood, with the intended result that a relatively small release of males can cause an extreme imbalance in the sex ratio and possibly the elimination of mosquitoes from an area. The different mechanisms of mosquito sex determination aside, I haven't been able to work…

This has basically already been done using a bacteria called Wolbachia [0].

[0] http://www.eliminatedengue.com/our-research/wolbachia

Re: Brazilians welcome genetically-modified mosquito to help fight dengue fever

#65

Post by robmcm »

jimworm wrote: post #57

I've recently been thinking about the possibility of a genetic disease for mosquitoes, transmitted down male lines but killing only females of the same brood, with the intended result that a relatively small release of males can cause an extreme imbalance in the sex ratio and possibly the elimination of mosquitoes from an area. The different mechanisms of mosquito sex determination aside, I haven't been able to work…

This would only work for a while, and then, "nature would find a way".

Sometimes I think no one even bothered paying attention to Jurassic Park.

Re: Brazilians welcome genetically-modified mosquito to help fight dengue fever

#66

Post by has2k1 »

robmcm wrote: post #65
jimworm wrote: post #57

I've recently been thinking about the possibility of a genetic disease for mosquitoes, transmitted down male lines but killing only females of the same brood, with the intended result that a relatively small release of males can cause an extreme imbalance in the sex ratio and possibly the elimination of mosquitoes from an area. The different mechanisms of mosquito sex determination aside, I haven't been able to work…

This would only work for a while, and then, "nature would find a way". Sometimes I think no one even bothered paying attention to Jurassic Park.

Nature does not always find a way, look at the fossil record for evidence.

Re: Brazilians welcome genetically-modified mosquito to help fight dengue fever

#67

Post by finnomenon »

has2k1 wrote: post #66
robmcm wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would only work for a while, and then, "nature would find a way". Sometimes I think no one even bothered paying attention to Jurassic Park.

Nature does not always find a way, look at the fossil record for evidence.

Birds are still around. Nature found a way in that specific case.

Re: Brazilians welcome genetically-modified mosquito to help fight dengue fever

#68

Post by has2k1 »

finnomenon wrote: post #67
has2k1 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nature does not always find a way, look at the fossil record for evidence.

Birds are still around. Nature found a way in that specific case.

When you look at the successes of nature you cannot help but marvel at it's ingenuity. But then you look at it's failures and you can only marvel at it's stupidity.

Nature is just like a password cracker tries all possible combinations of characters. Most tries are wrong and the clock is always ticking.

Re: Brazilians welcome genetically-modified mosquito to help fight dengue fever

#69

Post by cornholio »

finnomenon wrote: post #67
has2k1 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nature does not always find a way, look at the fossil record for evidence.

Birds are still around. Nature found a way in that specific case.

Nature will find a way if it has enough room for trial and error. Say, millions of germs mutating inside millions of hosts using antibiotics, trillions of mutations trying to beat a single molecule. By the time the Cretaceous environment recovered, birdosaurs could not regain their place on the top of the food chain because that space was taken over by mammals.

So if the extinction is swift and massive enough, the ecosystem will shift and there will not be a way to be found. So you should always ask: what dreadful bloodsucking beasts will replace the mosquito ?

I would much rather prefer they breed a transgenic mosquito unable to spread dengue than try to wipe all mosquitoes off the face of the planet.

Re: Brazilians welcome genetically-modified mosquito to help fight dengue fever

#70

Post by jimworm »

danieltillett wrote: post #64
jimworm wrote: post #57

I've recently been thinking about the possibility of a genetic disease for mosquitoes, transmitted down male lines but killing only females of the same brood, with the intended result that a relatively small release of males can cause an extreme imbalance in the sex ratio and possibly the elimination of mosquitoes from an area. The different mechanisms of mosquito sex determination aside, I haven't been able to work…

This has basically already been done using a bacteria called Wolbachia [0]. [0] http://www.eliminatedengue.com/our-research/wolbachia

Thanks to your cue, I found a candidate gene that might fit the bill called Medea [0]. Wolbachia itself won't cause catastrophic sex-ratio imbalances, so does not cause a "White Plague" scenario.

[0] http://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/bio2.0/engineering_in_th...

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