Despite the difference in methods, the GMO and wolbachia approaches have the same end goal: Reducing the Aedes aegypti population in a targeted way. Neither technology persists in the environment. If modified male mosquitoes are no longer released, eventually it’s likely the wild mosquitoes would repopulate.
Technology theoretically exists to try to wipe out populations more broadly, though, through genetic modifications that would get carried through generations.
“With the gene drive system, we could simply spread infertility,” explained Kevin Esvelt, an assistant professor at the MIT Media Lab who runs a group called Sculpting Evolution.
A gene drive is very powerful: Instead of leaving inheritance up to chance, a gene drive system ensures that particular DNA is passed along.
“It spreads indefinitely,” Esvelt said.
Considering the toll mosquitoes take on humanity, one might ask: Why don’t we kill them all?
Unfortunately, nobody in the scientific community seems to think this is a good idea.
“The history of mankind tells you mosquitoes are bad news,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Still, he said, “gene drive is a double-edged sword: it could possibly be the most effective way to control mosquitoes on the one hand; on the other hand, if there are unintended consequences, it may be a bit more difficult to turn the process off.”
Esvelt points out it’s not actually the mosquitoes we want to kill, it’s the diseases they carry.
“Our real enemies — the things we really do want to drive extinct — are viruses and parasites,” Esvelt said.
“We don’t necessarily want the mosquitoes that carry it gone,” he added. “So if we can suppress them down to levels where they can no longer transmit the virus and we can remove all of the other places where it’s present, then we can eradicate the disease without permanently harming the mosquito.”
For now, we may be stuck with the bugs. But if new methods are successful, perhaps one day they’ll return to being itchy pests, and relinquish their title of world’s most deadly animal.
