University of California Researchers Create Mosquitoes that Cannot Transmit Malaria
Anthony James and his colleagues from University of California Irving and the Pasteur Institute in Paris have produced a model of the Anopheles stephensi mosquito that impairs the development of the malaria parasite. A. stephensi is a major vector of malaria in India and the Middle East, but the new mosquitoes cannot transmit the disease through their bites.
The researchers developed their approach through mouse studies. Mice infected with the human form of malaria create antibodies that kill the parasite. James' team exploited the molecular components of this mouse immune-system response and engineered genes that could produce the same response in mosquitoes. In their model, antibodies are released in genetically modified mosquitoes that render the parasite harmless to others. James said that an advantage of his group's method is that their research can be applied to dozens of different mosquito types that harbor and transmit the Plasmodium falcifarum parasite.
Read more about this research at http://today.uci.edu/news/2012/06/nr_malaria_120612.php.
This article is part of the Crop Biotech Update, a weekly summary of world developments in agri-biotech for developing countries, produced by the Global Knowledge Center on Crop Biotechnology, International Service for the Aquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications SEAsiaCenter (ISAAA)
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