India to have indigenous genetically engineered mosquitoes


LONDON: India will soon have an army of indigenous genetically engineered mosquitoes which are sterile and unable to reproduce, thereby wiping out deadly dengue and malaria spreading wild vectors. 

An Oxford-based biotech firm Oxitec is all set to bring its RIDLtechnology to India to help combat Aedes aegypti, the mosquito vector that causes dengue and chikungunya. 

The Oxitec mosquito is a strain of the wild species that contains two additional genes. The Oxitec males (which cannot bite) are released to seek out and mate with the wild females. 

Their offspring inherit the additional genes and die before becoming functional adults. 

They also inherit a marker that is visible under a special light, making monitoring in the field simple and helping ensure that dengue mosquito control programmes succeed..............click for more

 

Source: Times of India

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