Question: Researchers from where in the world have developed a CRISPR-based system that can safely suppress mosquito vectors through sterilization?
a) Bangaluru
b) Hyderabad
c) California
d) London
Answer: (c)
Related Facts:-
- Recently scientists have created a new technology for controlling mosquitoes.
- They have used for this purpose CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats).
- The precision-guided sterile insect technique alters genes linked to male fertility and female flight in Aedes aegypti mosquitoe.
- This species is responsible for spreading diseases including dengue fever, chikungunya and Zika.
- This new CRISPR-based system that can safely suppress mosquito vectors through sterilization and has been developed by Researchers from California.
- This new technique is also known as precision-guided sterile insect technique (pgSIT).
- pgSIT builds deployable mosquitoes that can reduce populations using a CRISPR-based technique
- It changed genes related to male fertility-producing sterile offspring-and female flight of Aedes aegypti.
- Disease-carrying female mosquitos become flightless and it also sterilizes the male mosquitoes as pgSIT uses CRISPR.
By – Rajesh Tripathi
Links:-
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210910121630.htm
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25421-w