Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
“When the (gene-edited) mosquitoes are released in the field … they will spread across the entire mosquito population and cut malaria transmission right away,” he said, adding that gene ...
Gene editing and gene drives have the potential to be a massive scientific breakthrough, letting scientists target and eliminate diseases by modifying genes and disseminating them throughout a ...
The gene is a combination of DNA from a virus and a bacterium. In an earlier study, captive males carrying the gene eradicated communities of non-GM moths. [27] Brood sizes were similar, but female offspring died before reproducing. The gene itself disappears after a few generations, requiring ongoing introductions of GM cultivated males.
A gene drive is a natural process [1] and technology of genetic engineering that propagates a particular suite of genes throughout a population [2] by altering the probability that a specific allele will be transmitted to offspring (instead of the Mendelian 50% probability). Gene drives can arise through a variety of mechanisms.
Target Malaria is adapting a natural mechanism called a gene drive. The genetically modified mosquitoes carry a trait that targets their ability to reproduce. Gene drive ensures this modification is inherited at a higher rate than it normally would, thus reducing the fertility of the mosquito populations over time and ultimately their numbers.
Malaria-resistant mosquitoes have been developed in the laboratory. [126] by inserting a gene that reduces the development of the malaria parasite [127] and then use homing endonucleases to rapidly spread that gene throughout the male population (known as a gene drive). [128] This has been taken further by swapping it for a lethal gene.
[12] [13] Catteruccia is also involved in the design of gene drives to force malaria-resistance genes to spread through mosquito populations, using CRISPR gene editing. [ 14 ] [ 15 ] [ 16 ] Catteruccia as a 2012 PopTech Science fellow giving a talk on the reproductive biology of Anopheles mosquitoes
While working as a postdoctoral research associate, DeGennaro made the first mutant mosquito with the genome editing reagent, zinc finger nucleases, and tested its role in host-seeking behavior. [8] DeGennaro also determined molecular mechanisms that could be targeted to control mosquito behavior, as well as generated a neurotranscriptome of ...