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The Danger Within or Without?

The Danger Within or Without? Mosquitoes and Malaria Researchers hailed the recent sequencing of the genomes of the malaria parasite and the Anopheles mosquito vector that transmits the infection as advances that would foster new approaches to combat the disease. One such approach under study involves genetically modifying the mosquito so that it is no longer able to transmit the disease, then releasing the altered mosquitoes to breed in the wild and spread the antimalarial genes. Now, researchers from England and Italy found in laboratory studies that mosquitoes that were modified with marker genes (to allow scientists to track them) competed poorly with their wild counterparts and the introduced genes disappeared within just 16 generations (Science. 2003;299:1225-1227). The researchers said that intense inbreeding during the creation of the modified populations may have been responsible for the mosquitoes' failure to thrive, and that the inserted genes may have reduced mosquito fitness. These problems might be minimized, they suggested, by breeding the transgenic mosquitoes with wild ones to ensure substantial outbreeding of the engineered lines of mosquitoes or by releasing larger populations of transgenic insects. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png JAMA American Medical Association

The Danger Within or Without?

Stephenson, Joan
JAMA , Volume 289 (10) – Mar 12, 2003
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The Danger Within or Without?

Abstract

Mosquitoes and Malaria Researchers hailed the recent sequencing of the genomes of the malaria parasite and the Anopheles mosquito vector that transmits the infection as advances that would foster new approaches to combat the disease. One such approach under study involves genetically modifying the mosquito so that it is no longer able to transmit the disease, then releasing the altered mosquitoes to breed in the wild and spread the antimalarial genes. Now, researchers from England and Italy...
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Publisher
American Medical Association
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved.
ISSN
0098-7484
eISSN
1538-3598
DOI
10.1001/jama.289.10.1234-a
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Mosquitoes and Malaria Researchers hailed the recent sequencing of the genomes of the malaria parasite and the Anopheles mosquito vector that transmits the infection as advances that would foster new approaches to combat the disease. One such approach under study involves genetically modifying the mosquito so that it is no longer able to transmit the disease, then releasing the altered mosquitoes to breed in the wild and spread the antimalarial genes. Now, researchers from England and Italy found in laboratory studies that mosquitoes that were modified with marker genes (to allow scientists to track them) competed poorly with their wild counterparts and the introduced genes disappeared within just 16 generations (Science. 2003;299:1225-1227). The researchers said that intense inbreeding during the creation of the modified populations may have been responsible for the mosquitoes' failure to thrive, and that the inserted genes may have reduced mosquito fitness. These problems might be minimized, they suggested, by breeding the transgenic mosquitoes with wild ones to ensure substantial outbreeding of the engineered lines of mosquitoes or by releasing larger populations of transgenic insects.

Journal

JAMA – American Medical Association

Published: Mar 12, 2003

Keywords: culicidae,malaria,genes

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