Name: Ogundipe Iyanuoluwa Precious

Matriculation Number: 19CO026291

Programme: Applied Biology and Biotechnology

BIO217 Assignment

Mosquitoes transmit pathogens that cause of a wide range of diseases in humans such as
malaria, yellow fever, and dengue and zika fever. These diseases can lead to physical
impairments or could even be fatal. For example, according to the World Health Organization
(WHO), there are over 200 million new cases of malaria per year worldwide, resulting in
over 400,000 deaths, most of them children under the age of 5. The zika fever is caused by a
virus transmitted through the bite of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. The symptoms in adult
humans could be relatively mild although when this virus infects pregnant women it affects
the developing foetus which could affect brain development this causes a condition called
microcephaly for which there is no cure as of now. In a bid to reduce the population of these
Aedes aegypti mosquitoes; genetically modified mosquitoes were created; these GMO’s
when mated with mild mosquitoes contains genes that cause offspring’s to die before
becoming adults

Genetically modified mosquitoes were first developed by oxitec scientists by inserting genes
from other organisms into the mosquitoes’ genome. The first insert is a fluorescence gene
gotten from a colored marine coral (discosoma sp) which causes mosquito larvae to glow red
under fluorescence light. This fluorescence gene enabled them to identify genetically
modified mosquitoes.

The second gene inserted is the lethality gene which is a combination of DNA sequences
from the bacterium E.coli and from the herpes simplex virus. This causes mosquito larvae to
die unless they receive an antidote. The lethality gene is more accurately called tetracycline
transcriptional activator variant (or tTAV); it encodes a protein that blocks the transcription
of genes that are essential to mosquito development. GMO mosquitoes that produce the tTav
protein die before they reach maturity however in the presence of the antibiotic tetracycline
the tTav cannot block the transcription of genes necessary for development; it acts as a
repressor to the lethality gene. So when GMO’S are released into the wild and breeding takes
place between them and wild female mosquitoes- provided that tetracycline is not in the
environment, offspring’s will die.
 G
enetically modified mosquitoes light up

Some of the ethical concerns of releasing genetically modified mosquitoes are:

1. GMO mosquitoes may disrupt the ecosystem by interbreeding with closely related
species to form hybrids.
2. These mosquitoes may also cause harm to non-target predators if the y potentially
have the ability to produce toxins or substances that are lethal to those predators
3. The release of infertile mosquitoes could disrupt the ecosystem because of the
elimination of a particular species which could in turn affect the food chain.
4. People exposed to these genetically modified mosquitoes may be at risk because the
genetic modifications may not produce the expected results; they may confer no
resistance at all or, worse, they may reduce resistance to the target infection. They
may also enable the mosquitoes to serve as vectors for a different disease or promote
the evolution of pathogens with increased virulence.
5. There are also concerns for the people who are not part of the research study and
trying to protect them from the risks involved with the study.

References

https://www.biointeractive.org/sites/default/files/GMMosquito-Educator-
SW.pdfhttps://www.biointeractive.org/sites/default/files/GMMosquito-Educator-SW.pdf
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