DNA editing shows success in mosquito sterilization

A new genetic tool may help eradicate Africa’s main malaria-carrying mosquitoes.  

A self-propagating cut-and-paste system known as a gene drive can sterilize female Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes, researchers report December 7 in Nature Biotechnology.

This is the second gene drive aimed at eliminating malaria. The first, published November 23 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (SN Online: 11/23/15), would stop mosquitoes from transmitting the parasite. The new gene drive would eliminate the mosquitoes themselves by making it impossible for females to reproduce.