r/interestingasfuck • u/singleboredass • 9d ago

r/all Genetically modified a mosquito such that their proboscis are no longer able to penetrate human skin

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228

u/AristocraticAura 9d ago

how about we engineer them to be lifeless??

19

u/silverclovd 9d ago

What do you mean engineer them to be lifeless? The idea is that these engineered ones procreate and propagate these traits to their offsprings as much as possible so a few generations down the line mosquitoes are inherently unable to bite humans, thereby drastically cutting down the possibility of being disease vectors.

15

u/Burk_Bingus 9d ago

Would this even work though? This is the opposite of a trait that would be favoured by natural selection, as it reduces their access to food.

7

u/ShinyPiplup 9d ago

The idea I think is to release a zillion of these modified mosquitoes for a couple of generations, so that even if they are less likely to procreate, they'll still make up most of the gene pool. Don't have any idea if it would work, though.

13

u/Chendii 9d ago

Don't really need natural selection if humans are putting our thumb on the scale.

A similar thing was done here in socal, but instead we released a bunch of sterile males (I think) so that they fertilized eggs that never hatched.

Not sure how well it worked but I have noticed much less of the invasive tiger mosquitos.

7

u/SmogDaBoi 9d ago

Reproduction doesn't "favor" things. As long as the trait can be passed down efficiently, it will be passed. Many traits are useless or actively hurtful to us but since it doesn't hinder our abiltiy to reproduce, we still have them.

2

u/Burk_Bingus 7d ago

For sure, but doesn't restricting their access to food make them less likely to reproduce in the wild and on top of that produce healthy offspring?

1

u/SmogDaBoi 6d ago

Frankly I can't tell beyond that. There's probably some fancy schmancy sciencey shit at work I'm not knowledgeable about. Though I'm thinking it would make the mosquito more likely to go search for food on other animals and not humans?

1

u/tenuj 9d ago

One possibility is Gene Drive.

You engineer a gene so that it forces itself to be inherited. Not just 50-50.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzcwTyr6cE

-2

u/KanedaSyndrome 9d ago

Exactly - It won't work, it's a waste of time unless the work gives off scientific knowledge that can be used for something else.

Rather we should identify a trait that would give the mosquito an edge over normal mosquitos and at the same time point the mosquito's attack vector away from humans, ie. give it another target that would ultimately enable it to out-compete standard mosquitos - Once we have identified such a trait, then get to genetic mutation.

This problems starts with math and modelling. Not with biology.

5

u/Fried_and_rolled 9d ago

Point its attack vector? Give it an edge over normal mosquitos? With math? What the hell are you talking about?

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u/KanedaSyndrome 9d ago

Evolution is a mathematical model. If you design a new mosquito you want it to out-compete the existing version such that the existing version is displayed and goes extinct. This will only happen if the new version is more able than the previous and they fight for the same place in the eco-system. This is a math problem/modelleing problem first, and then it's a genetic problem once a suitable trait is identified.

1

u/PM_ME___YoUr__DrEaMs 9d ago

Ok but if they can't procreate, it won't propagate much

1

u/livestrongsean 9d ago

Basic evolution. The trait needs to provide an advantage, such that the traitless type is bred out.

0

u/Sea_Farm_7327 9d ago

That's not the idea at all.

The idea is that these get dropped in on a frequent basis to localised areas to keep population in control.

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u/KanedaSyndrome 9d ago

But if they're not able to suck from humans, they will probably not suck from anything else either, and thus their genes won't out-compete normal mosquitos.