The ‘poisonous male method’ goals to breed mosquitoes that specific venomous proteins of their semen.
Genetically engineered mosquitoes with poisonous semen could possibly be a brand new weapon towards tropical illness, Australian scientists mentioned after trialing the novel pest management methodology.
The “toxic male technique” goals to breed mosquitoes that specific venomous proteins of their semen, killing off females after mating.
Feminine mosquitoes are focused as a result of solely they chunk and drink blood, thereby spreading ailments akin to malaria and dengue fever.
Scientist Sam Seaside from Australia’s Macquarie College mentioned the strategy “could work as quickly as pesticides without also harming beneficial species”.
“This innovative solution could transform how we manage pests, offering hope for healthier communities and a more sustainable future.”
The primary proof-of-concept trials used fruit flies, a typical laboratory species favored for its brief two-week life cycle.
Feminine flies that bred with “toxic” males had a considerably lowered lifespan, the scientists discovered.
Researcher Maciej Maselko mentioned the crew would now trial the strategy in mosquitoes.
“We still need to implement it in mosquitoes and conduct rigorous safety testing to ensure there are no risks to humans or other non-target species,” he mentioned.
The mosquitoes would must be genetically modified so that they solely expressed the poisonous semen as soon as they had been launched into the wild, the researchers mentioned.
This could possibly be executed by so-called “conditional expression” strategies, which use chemical substances or different organic triggers to show particular genes on or off at will.
This may enable venomous males to efficiently mate with females in lab circumstances, producing sufficient viable offspring for the method to be scaled up.
Genetic engineering has been used for years to manage populations of disease-spreading mosquitoes.
Sometimes, these approaches sluggish replica by releasing hordes of male bugs which might be genetically modified to be sterile.
Laptop fashions confirmed strategies actively killing biting females could possibly be far more practical, the analysis crew mentioned.
The analysis was described in a paper revealed by peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications on Tuesday night.
Extra info:
Recombinant venom proteins in insect seminal fluid cut back feminine lifespan, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-54863-1
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