Fungus with a venom gene could be new mosquito killer

Fungus with a venom gene could be new mosquito killer

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/364/6443/817.full

Excerpt: ...(R)esearchers from the University of Maryland (UMD) in College Park and the Research Institute of Health Sciences & Centre Muraz in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, endowed a strain called M. pingshaense with a gene for a toxin isolated from spider venom that turns on when it contacts hemolymph, the insect version of blood. (...) They released 500 female and 1000 male mosquitoes in each test compartment and gave the mosquitoes a calf to feed on for two nights every week. After two generations—45 days—there were as many as 2500 adult mosquitoes in the control compartment, roughly 700 in the compartment with wild type fungus, but only 13 in the compartment with the GM fungus. (This is an amazing breakthrough in the on-going fight against malaria. The article explains how the study was done–very thoroughly. No doubt every anti-GM group in the world will object, but this could potentially save MILLIONS of lives throughout the world, so it is likely worth the risk, if any. On the other hand, DDT would do almost as much, and for a tiny fraction of what it will cost to develop and market this, if the fungus can be commercially produced at all. Curse Rachel Carson! Ron P.)