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750M genetically modified mosquitoes to be released in Florida

bbc.com

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

#91

Post by niea_11 »

mattmanser wrote: post #89
reedf1 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I briefly worked in a leading Biology lab as an undergrad - and this sort of work came up. Genetic modification considered alone is not scary. Gene drives designed for sterilization on the other hand - are. I was given a long explanation about how gene drives worked and was filled with mild existential terror at how easy it would be to replace "mosquito" with "human". I knew many biologists capable of performing thes…

One post-doc could release 750 million genetically altered humans and we'd be doomed.

I think @reedf1 is talking about the long term damage to a population.

With the gene drive technology, the modified gene is always inherited.

the 750 million number is there to speed up the process.

(This my understanding from reading the first few paragraphs from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_drive)

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

#93

Post by stinos »

jobigoud wrote: post #87
raducu wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could we do the same for ticks?

Should we? What is normally eating the ticks or living off of them?

Certain ant species can eat ticks, but as far as I'm aware there's no species feeding only off ticks, and Lyme and Encephalitis are really nasty. But it's an interesting question: suppose we can somehow erradicate all ticks, what effect would that have? How much do they matter for the food chain or on ecosystems in general?

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

#94

Post by ben_w »

reedf1 wrote: post #86
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…

I briefly worked in a leading Biology lab as an undergrad - and this sort of work came up. Genetic modification considered alone is not scary. Gene drives designed for sterilization on the other hand - are. I was given a long explanation about how gene drives worked and was filled with mild existential terror at how easy it would be to replace "mosquito" with "human". I knew many biologists capable of performing thes…

Perhaps I am being naive (I’m certainly ignorant enough to be), but I don’t see why we should be worried about gene drives in humans — surely we can, in principle, genetically modify ourselves to fix the problem gene drives would cause?

For example, there was a story in the UK press (it may be fictional, but I think it will still serve the argument) that there is a gene which causes extremely strong male-directed sexual attraction in both men and women [0] — all men with it are gay, all women with it are hyperfertile, and the hyperfertility is strong enough that positive evolutionary pressure from the women counterbalances the negative pressure from the men.

I think that this sort of thing could count as a toy model of gene-drive, but do correct me if I’m misusing terms or generally failing to understand.

But, even in this toy example probably based on a journalist failing to understand the science, we can not only genetically modify ourselves, but also we have in-vitro fertilisation so we don’t even need to GM ourselves.

[0] don’t worry, I’m bi, this isn’t a hopeless pearl-clutching story about gay genes

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

#95

Post by NickNameNick »

Knufen wrote: post #79
zaarn wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you check millions of insects for actually being sterile? Considering it cost 100M$, I assume they established a non-lethal dose of radiation and then just blasted the insects. Could easily be that one develops beneficial mutations.

Not to sound condescending but I think we have yet to observe radiation leading to useful mutation. Radiation does not lead to 'mutation' in the sense of what you are implying. Rather it leads to DNA damages (breakage of chemical bonds) which usually leads to cancer.

It's been tried.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_gardening

"The practice of plant irradiation has resulted in the development of over 2000 new varieties of plants, most of which are now used in agricultural production"

See also:

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/atom-garden-eden/

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

#96

Post by dotancohen »

neves wrote: post #47
mosquitoh8 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-49660-6#Sec10 This study is interesting. It relates to the company and what happened to the mosquitoes when they tested it in Brazil and Malaysia. TLDR: Mosquito population became suppressed at first but rebounded to pre-release levels and some carried the genetics of the GM mosquitoes (3% survival rate and can reproduce), unknown implications of hybrid vigor. "However, it i…

This is the perfect outcome for the company profits. Now they can sell a bunch of GM mosquitos each 18 months. A bug for the consumers, a feature for the developers.

  > A bug for the consumers, a feature for the developers.

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

#97

Post by hilbert42 »

Presumably all the bleeding hearts who've objected have never had malaria nor have they ever seen anyone in the throwes of suffering from it. Mosquitoes are the number one killer worldwide.

Can't these idiots realize that whilst there's risks that they're outweighed by the benefits.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/mosquitoes-kill-mo...

One of the tragedies of modern society is that the whingers and whiners usually haven't suffered from the effects of the things they're complaining about. Their political action then denies benefits to others not so ideologically disposed.

We've seen how much damage they've caused over COVID-19 objecting to masks, vaccines and so on. Many thousands have died as a result who otherwise would not have had these objectors had more sense.

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

#98

Post by shellfishgene »

jobigoud wrote: post #87
raducu wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could we do the same for ticks?

Should we? What is normally eating the ticks or living off of them?

You also have to ask the other way around: What do ticks do to their hosts? Animals such as moose or reindeer can suffer greatly from heavy tick infestations. Depending on the death rate this causes removing the ticks could have similar effects to removing predators such as wolves from the ecosystem. However there are many tick species, and I doubt the impact would be that strong, but who knows.

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

#99

Post by shellfishgene »

graton wrote: post #71
mosquitoh8 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-49660-6#Sec10 This study is interesting. It relates to the company and what happened to the mosquitoes when they tested it in Brazil and Malaysia. TLDR: Mosquito population became suppressed at first but rebounded to pre-release levels and some carried the genetics of the GM mosquitoes (3% survival rate and can reproduce), unknown implications of hybrid vigor. "However, it i…

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-62398-w The Editors are issuing an Editorial Expression of Concern for this Article. Shortly after publication of this Article in September 2019, the Editors were alerted to concerns regarding the interpretation of the data and some of the conclusions. Specific concerns include: - the title does not make it clear that the authors only examined genomes of specimens that lacke…

I wonder what's going on there, at the bottom it lists the authors of the original study and if they agree or disagree with the expression of concern. It's almost split between Yale and the Brazilians, with one exception, whith the Brazilians agreeing and the Yale people disagreeing.

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

#100

Post by StreamBright »

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…

I was not aware of this.

For those who are unfamiliar with the screwworm program:

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/internationalservi...

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