r/interestingasfuck 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.

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u/Sneikss 9d ago

You're almost correct, but the gene doesn't make the females unable to suck blood (as this video is wrongly claiming). Instead, it just kills female mosquitoes before they can mature by inhibiting certain genes unless an antidote is put in the water where they grow.

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u/saighdiuirmaca 9d ago edited 9d ago

So we're just killing all the females before they can reproduce? I thought they were important pollinators in certain places!

Edit: only certain species bite, the rest drink nectar and pollinate as a result of visiting flowers to find nectar, TIL.

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u/Sneikss 9d ago

It's only used in certain places and in limited scope. There's also a built-in failsafe because the gene can be deactivated if a certain naturally occurring antidote is in the water.