Mozzies suck (pun) but new research from Colorado State University could see mosquitos embedded with DNA barcodes to track the diseases they carry.
Tracking mosquitos is often error-prone. The capturing and tagging of individual mosquitos is unreliable (as there are so many mosquitos that would need a tag) and tracking mosquitos with a fluorescent powder (a common modern method) is often inaccurate.
Perhaps a new method of tracking mosquitos could be in their DNA. At least, that’s what researchers at Colorado State University are trying to pull off.
This new method involves feeding harmless DNA and proteins (referred to by the researchers as crystals) to mosquito larvae. It’s expected that this could revolutionise the tracking of diseases that move through mosquitos.
So far, the results are very promising. Eating the crystals as larvae, traces of the proteins and DNA remain intact in the guts of the insects as they grow into adults.
“We could have a map on the landscape of mosquitoes being produced in a certain area,” Rebekah Kading said. She’s a researcher at Colorado State University.
“We could identify hotspots for mosquito production. I think this would add a whole other dimension of knowledge to the real-time mosquito surveillance and control operations that are already in place.”
With a DNA barcode, researchers could track where a mosquito originated and where they have come from. It could be a tremendous step forward in monitoring the behaviours of mosquitos.
Kading wants future research to include a temporal component, in which researchers could identify not just where mosquitos ended up, but when they ate the barcodes.
The team also wants to expand research into tropical environments, where mosquito-borne viruses are a major threat.
You can read about the DNA barcoding method online, or you could read the paper in PNAS Nexus.