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| Brain storming on Genetically modified mosquitos held at SKUAST-Jammu | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Jan 15: A national-level workshop was organized under the leadership of Dr J.P.Sharma, Hon'ble Vice-chancellor SKUAST-Jammu in collaboration with the Department of science and technology, Govt of India.
The workshop was conducted by Dr Anees Yadav, National Professor ICAR under SERB Programme. In an invited lecture on Genetically Modified mosquitos, Dr R.K.Gupta, Professor and Head Entomology, deliberated that Insect-borne diseases cause significant economic losses in countries where they are endemic and approximately half of the world's population is at risk of contracting insect-borne diseases. These vector-borne diseases account for more than 17% of all infectious diseases, causing more than 700,000 deaths annually. They can be caused by parasites, bacteria or viruses. He disclosed that there were estimated 219 million Malaria cases worldwide which result in more than 400,000 deaths each year. On the other hand 3.9 billion people in more than 129 countries are at risk of contracting dengue, with about 96 million symptomatic cases and about 40,000 deaths each year. Other vector-borne viral diseases include chikungunya fever, Zika virus fever, yellow fever, West Nile fever and Japanese encephalitis. He told that most humans are at risk in developing countries, concentrated in Africa and Southeast Asia.
Since, there are currently no vaccines and current conventional disease-control programmes have failed to manage them effectively, these have continued to spread and resurge. However, Genetically modified (GM) insects which are produced by inserting new genes into their genome hold great potential. Dr RK Gupta emphasised that this innovative approach is based upon self-limiting population suppression mechanisms that include sterile insect technique and Release of Insects carrying a dominant lethal (RIDL). This RIDL technique involves genetic improvement of the SIT whereby lethal gene is inserted into the insects using transgenic technology, a non-toxic, lethal protein (tTAV) that allows larval development but prevents RIDL insect progeny from reaching adulthood. When they mate with wild insects, the lethal gene is passed down to the offspring, causing them to die. The insect population from the area would be eradicated if enough of the GM males were to be released to inundate the wild females. Because the lethal genes are designed to kill subsequent generations, most suppression strategies are self-limiting, eventually eradicating all GM individuals from the wild. Dr Gupta shared that the recent field trials based upon Oxitech RIDL technique gene are under progress in Florida, Cayman island and Brazil and a suppression level of about 95 % has been achieved so far. The use of genetically modified mosquitoes thus holds a wide potential to eradicate the vector born diseases all over the world in future. |
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