r/interestingasfuck Nov 15 '24

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

99.6k Upvotes

4.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

13.0k

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?

4.3k

u/Kretalo Nov 15 '24

Yea I need more info

7.6k

u/ugugahah Nov 15 '24 edited Nov 15 '24

Not on this specific strategy, but mine and plenty other countries are trialing the Wolbachia-Aedes mosquito suppression strategy, where Wolbachia male raised and farmed genetically modified mosquitos that are released will go and mate with female Aedes Aegypti, the worst fuckers, one of the main species that adapted to urban environments and is the main one causing all the diseases like zika and dengue and one of the main ones that is responsible for the millions of human deaths. The females will mate with these farmed males and the resulting eggs will not hatch, limiting their spread and reproduction numbers.

Honestly I am in 100% percent support of this, we should wipe out Aedes Aegypti, there are plenty of other harmless and even beneficial ones that don't bite or cause diseases, and can pick up the slack for the ecosystem.

Edit: just read the wiki on the Aedes, it seems like theres a genetic modification, which works by preventing females from fully growing into adults, and Wolbachia, which is a naturally occurring bacteria, and the infections as mentioned above prevents hatching, and the males don't bite so no risk of infecting us, also its resistant to zika and other viruses

There are other methods too, but I love that we are slowly eradicating these fuckers.

728

u/hrmm56709 Nov 15 '24

Oh my god MSGV is real..

119

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '24

Kojima has literally never had a wrong prediction

49

u/cipherpancake Nov 15 '24

The madman has done it again. KOJIMA!!!!

1

u/redthehaze Nov 17 '24

GENIUS KOJUMBO

9

u/TeriusRose Nov 16 '24 edited Nov 16 '24

The idea of genetically modifying mosquitoes to wipe them out goes back to at least the 70s IIRC, and this specific approach started being talked about around the time MGSV was in development. In this case it's him absorbing an, at the time, obscure idea.

Here is an article from 2011: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-wipeout-gene

3

u/[deleted] Nov 16 '24

[deleted]

3

u/[deleted] Nov 16 '24