Malaria will be fought by male mosquitoes that deprive the female of the ability to reproduce
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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British scientists proposed to fight the spread of malaria with the help of infertile male mosquitoes, which deprive the female of the ability to reproduce after mating. The report on the experiment of employees of the Imperial College of London is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The idea of the researchers was based on the fact that the female mosquito Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto (this species is one of the main carriers of malaria in Africa) mate for the only time in their life, after which they lose interest in males and begin to lay eggs.
Scientists managed to remove male mosquitoes mating with females in the same way as normal males, but not able to produce sperm. For this, the RNA-interference method was used, with the help of which the activity of the gene responsible for the development of the testes was suppressed in the larvae of males.
In total, this way it was possible to get about 100 individuals of infertile male mosquitoes. After mating with them in the behavior of females, standard changes occurred: they began to lay eggs, which, however, were not fertilized and did not develop.
As explained by the authors of the study, the idea of using sterilized males to reduce the number of insects is not new: thus, previously tried to deal with the tsetse fly and some insect pests. To make males infertile, their larvae were most often exposed to radiation. This made insects less viable. The RNA interference method, used by British scientists, allows to keep health sterilized insects, which gives them the opportunity to compete more successfully for the female.
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