Infecting Mosquitoes With Contagious Gonad-Attacking Bacteria Could Block Dengue Fever
The Only Good Mosquito? PlaneMad The fight against mosquito-borne Dengue fever is ongoing in more than 100 countries all over the world, but in Australia the gloves are off and researchers are going right for the gonads. Using a bacterial parasite known as Wolbachia, researchers have found a way to block out Dengue in mosquitoes, making it impossible for them to transmit it to humans. Wolbachia comes in several flavors--almost all of which manifest themselves in the gonads as well as other organs--but the particular one researchers have identified here has a unique property: when an infected male mates with an uninfected female, the female dies. And when an infected male mates with an infected female, the offspring live--but they all carry the Wolbachia infection with them, ensuring its further spread through a population. This, of course, solves a major problem with mosquito control. Spraying insects with insecticides helps them to develop...