Scientists seek friendlier mosquito Publication: UPI
Date: Thursday, April 22, 2004 The
University of California-Davis wants to design a transposon to boost
the effectiveness of genetically-modified mosquitoes that cannot
transmit malaria.
A transposon is a mobile piece of DNA scientists use to put genes
into an insect.Transposons are essentially DNA parasites that move in
or out of the genome under the right circumstances.
The system proposed at UC-Davis is a transposon that gives an
advantage to mosquitoes already carrying genes to block malaria, so
those genes spread through the population by natural selection, the
university said.
Postdoctoral researcher Matthew Hahn and Sergey Nuzhdin, a
professor of evolution and ecology at UC-Davis, say under current
methods the malaria resistance genes available are not effective. And
there's no way to reliably push the genes through the population.
The genetic engineering work involved in their proposal is challenging, but should be possible, Hahn said.
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