As per a research published in the Journal PLoS Pathogens, it has been revealed that a team of US researchers have identified a gene in mosquito Anopheles stephensi, which can increase the level of insects to kill the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum.
The research was led by molecular biologist George Dimopolous at the Johns Hopkins University. George was of the view that they are quite close to the development process of creating super-immune mosquitoes, which can eliminate malaria parasites.
“We now know which genes can be manipulated through genetic engineering to create a malaria resistant mosquito”, said George. He affirmed they have been studying the Anopheles-Plasmodium for 20 years and it is now that they have came across a ways, which can lead to the development of species that can kill malaria parasite.
Purushothaman Jambulingam, senior scientist at the Vector Control Research Centre, was of the view that it is one-of-its-kind research. It is happening for the first time that such a new way is adopted to kill malaria parasite.
It is expected that new genetically devised mosquitoes will mate with wild mosquitoes, and their offspring will be resistant to malaria parasites.