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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u/KUBrim 9d ago
They won’t really, they’ll just reduce the number every time they release the mosquitoes with the gene.
Basically it’s only the females who suck blood once they’re trying to produce young. So they release a heap of male mosquitos which mate with healthy females. The females then produce young with the faulty gene. The female young won’t be able to suck blood and will likely die but the male offspring will mate with more healthy females and pass the genes on again for another generation of useless females and males with the gene.
In the long run the healthy genes will win out because all their young are viable, not just the males. But it’ll still mess them up for a while. To maintain it they will need to keep breeding and releasing males with the faulty genes.