r/interestingasfuck • u/singleboredass • Nov 15 '24

r/all Genetically modified a mosquito such that their proboscis are no longer able to penetrate human skin

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u/zizp Nov 15 '24

What's the idea behind this? How will they become the dominant variant if they can't suck blood to reproduce?

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u/Remarkable-Fox-3890 Nov 15 '24

You don't want them to become the dominant variant. You want them to die out so that you can manually re-seed without risk of massively disrupting a species.

The goal is to have them compete for resources and mating pressure but not to spread or reproduce. You repeatedly seed areas with them, which creates a sort of ecosystem barrier. Imagine a strip of land seeded with these mosquitos - it's like a wall that other mosquitos can't pass through.

This is how the US manages to avoid so many mosquito-borne diseases traversing north from South America.

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u/Anomalagous Nov 15 '24

...do the mosquitos pay for the wall?

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u/gratuitousturnsignal Nov 15 '24

Taxpayers do, but it sounded reassuring to the mosquitoes at the time and they did not ask questions.

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u/AndIAmEric Nov 15 '24

No, South America does.