Posted on 10/10/2005 11:06:09 AM PDT by laney
A genetically engineered mosquito with glowing gonads could become a new weapon in the battle against malaria.
Researchers at Imperial College London created the mosquito by attaching a gene for fluorescence found in jellyfish to a gene expressed only in a male mosquito’s sexual organs. The technique makes it relatively simple to distinguish males from females, something that has previously hindered malaria-eradication strategies.
One way to control disease-carrying mosquitoes is to flood an area with millions of sterile males. They mate with the females but produce no offspring, so the insect population drops. The technique has helped control the Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata), for instance.
Go with the flow But the strategy relies on being able to separate males from females, as sterile females can still transmit malaria. The problem is that, unlike some insects, the larvae are very difficult to sex.
Making the male larvae fluoresce solves the problem, and in fact makes them so easy to spot that the process can be automated. The researchers used a machine similar to a flow cytometer that had already been adapted to sort fruit flies.
The mosquito larvae flow past a detector in a stream of water, and when the machine detects fluorescence it uses a puff of air to divert the males into a separate area for collection. The machine sorted 180,000 larvae in 10 hours.
Turned on To create the mosquito, researchers inserted the gene for enhanced green fluorescent protein in a position where it would be turned on by the Beta-2-tubulin promoter, which is active only in the male gonads. The mosquitoes used in the experiment were Anopheles stephensi, which carries malaria in Asia.
Andrea Crisanti, a molecular parasitologist and one of the Imperial College team, says the technique should be easy to apply to other problem mosquito species.
Peter Atkinson, an entomologist at the University of California, Riverside, says: “This is the first demonstration that it is feasible to use fluorescent expression to robotically separate males from females. If you need to release millions of mosquitoes you don’t want to sort them manually.”
So, Bubba finally found a gig he was good at!
Glo-nuts??
I had glowing gonads once when I sliced jalepenos and then went pee without washing my hands first.
Just a guess, but I'll bet I'm right.
I wonder if the girl-mosquitos really dig guy mosquitos with glowing 'nads...
"If you need to release millions of mosquitoes you don’t want to sort them manually."
Amen to that.
What the hell?
Hee hee. No comment.
Can we replace half of our Republican Sentors with these moquitos? Atleast the mosquitos have balls.
This will be the next fashion wave, right after body piercing.
Those are words I never thought I would see. I dare say, they are words that probably have never occured before now.
I'm surprised you had the balls to post this.
Ever seen that George Carlin routine about words that have never (in the entire history of time itself) been put together in a single phrase? Well, I think we've just been witness to history with:
"glowing gonads could become a new weapon"
They gave him a glowing recommendation.
All jokes aside, this seems like pretty neat innovation.
"As soon as I shove this hot poker up my !@# I'm going to chop my $%^& off."
Oh dear God. I am almost afraid to read the replies to this thread.
...or Glo-nads.
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