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In early February, researchers at secure laboratory in Terni, Italy, began releasing hundreds of genetically engineered mosquitoes into an enclosure that mimics the natural environment, NPR reports. The insects carry what’s known as a gene drive, a deleterious sequence designed be inherited by most offspring to spread quickly through the population, and the scientists are looking for unforeseen consequences of the modification before deploying the engineered insects to fight malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases in Africa and elsewhere.
“This will really be a breakthrough experiment,” Ruth Müller, an entomologist who runs the Italian lab, tells NPR. “It’s a historic moment.”
The particular gene drive in this experiment involves an alteration to the doublesex gene that stops female mosquitoes from laying eggs and causes them to develop mouth parts more similar to males, such that they can’t bite. Female mosquitoes are the ones that spread disease when ...
