In the Florida Keys, the first natural environment test of genetically modified mosquitoes was carried out, and a batch of genetically modified mosquitoes were released to the island, these mosquitoes are male, male mosquitoes do not bite, and these mosquitoes are designed to produce only male offspring through genetically modified engineering.
In the mosquito family, only female mosquitoes will come out to feed and bite people, and genetically modified mosquitoes can breed a large number of male offspring, thereby reducing the number of mosquitoes.
Genetically modified mosquitoes have an effect, but they cannot be done once and for all:
Based on natural experiments in the Florida Keys, scientists have found that genetically modified male mosquitoes can naturally mate with female mosquitoes in the wild and can lay eggs normally.
Biologists collected 20,000 mosquito egg samples and found that all of these eggs hatched into male mosquitoes, so genetically modified mosquitoes can indeed reduce the number of mosquitoes, thus avoiding too many mosquitoes affecting the organism.
In the GMO project, biologists modified mosquito genetics to allow female mosquito eggs to die and retain only male eggs.
However, after the first generation of genetically modified mosquitoes hatch, the transgenic effect of the second generation of male mosquitoes will gradually decrease. According to sample tests from biologists, the genetically modified organism only maintains about three generations of mosquitoes, after which the mosquitoes will return to normal.
After the "release" of genetically modified mosquitoes, although the number of mosquitoes can be reduced, this can not be done once and for all, after a short period of three generations of mosquitoes, the number of female mosquitoes will return to normal. The genetic fragments modified by biologists cannot be continuously passed on to the offspring of mosquitoes.
Local residents are skeptical of genetically modified mosquitoes:
Although the reduction of mosquitoes is certainly beneficial to the lives of organisms and can also reduce the spread of diseases, genetically modified mosquitoes still make many local residents feel uneasy.
Many residents expressed doubts about biological companies and genetically modified technologies, and genetically modified mosquitoes cannot guarantee that they will have no adverse effects on the human body at 100%, and many residents say that people are more willing to believe in traditional pesticides than genetically modified mosquitoes.
Let genetically modified mosquitoes enter nature, reduce the number of mosquitoes, this special genetic engineering, are you willing to accept?