Scientists have altered the mosquito genome that helps malaria spread. Their mosquitoes cannot now be infected with the parasite that causes the disease. This is the first time that genetic modification has completely blocked the development of a parasite that carries malaria to humans in mosquitoes, reports New Scientist.
A tropical disease, malaria, is caused by the malaria plague, a single-celled protozoan of the genus Plasmodium rotium. The germ of malaria is transmitted between sick and healthy people through female mosquitoes. Malaria is the most common infectious disease in the world. Every year, more than 220 million people suffer from it, and between one and three million die, mainly young children from Black Africa.
Recently, scientists have genetically altered mosquitoes from the species that transmits the malaria parasite to humans. Michael Riehle of the University of Arizona in Tucson and his colleagues influenced genes related to insulin production and the immune system. As a result, the immune response of their mosquitoes clearly increased. The malaria plague was not found in any of the insects that had two copies of the altered gene and drank infected blood.
It also found that having a copy of the modified gene shortened the mosquito life by 20 percent. This discovery could help contain the malaria epidemic with a new strain of insects. In order to mature, malaria germs must spend a certain amount of time in the mosquito’s body. They will fail with mosquitoes that live much shorter than normal.
Before a strain of antimalarial mosquitoes can be released into the wild, another change to their genome must be made, says Riehle. Modified mosquitoes must be made to gain an advantage over those that live in the wild. Otherwise, wild mosquitoes will continue to infect humans with fever. (PAP)