{"id":245669,"date":"2024-11-05T04:19:11","date_gmt":"2024-11-05T04:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/11\/05\/novel-way-to-beat-dengue-deaf-mosquitoes-stop-having-sex\/"},"modified":"2024-11-05T04:19:11","modified_gmt":"2024-11-05T04:19:11","slug":"novel-way-to-beat-dengue-deaf-mosquitoes-stop-having-sex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/11\/05\/novel-way-to-beat-dengue-deaf-mosquitoes-stop-having-sex\/","title":{"rendered":"Novel way to beat dengue: Deaf mosquitoes stop having sex"},"content":{"rendered":"<br><p>Malaria is caused by a complex parasite which is spread by mosquito bites.<\/p><div id=\"article-text\">\n                       \n                        \n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Scientists believe they have found a quirky way to fight mosquito-spread diseases such as dengue, yellow fever and Zika &#8211; by turning male insects deaf so they struggle to mate and breed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mosquitoes have sex while flying in mid-air and the males rely on hearing to chase down a female, based on her attractive wingbeats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The researchers experimented, altering a genetic pathway that male mosquitoes use for this hearing. The result &#8211; they made no physical contact with females, even after three days in the same cage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Female mosquitoes are the ones that spread diseases to people, so trying to prevent them from having babies would help reduce overall numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The team from the University of California, Irvine studied Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which spread viruses to around 400 million people a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They closely observed the insects&#8217; aerial mating habits &#8211; which can last between a few seconds to just under a minute &#8211; and then figured out how to disrupt them using genetics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They targeted a protein called trpVa that appears to be essential for hearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the mutated mosquitoes, neurons normally involved in detecting sound showed no response to the flight tones or wingbeats of potential mates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The alluring noise fell on deaf ears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In contrast, wild (non-mutant) males were quick to copulate, multiple times, and fertilised nearly all the females in their cage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara, who have\u00a0published their work in the journal PNAS, said the effect of the gene knock-out was &#8220;absolute&#8221;, as mating by deaf males was entirely eliminated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr Joerg Albert, from the University of Oldenburg in Germany, is an expert on mosquito mating and I asked him what he made of the research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He said attacking sense of sound was a promising route for mosquito control, but it needed to be studied and managed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The study provides a first direct molecular test, which suggests that hearing is indeed not only important for mosquito reproduction but essential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Without the ability of males to hear &#8211; and acoustically chase &#8211; female mosquitoes might become extinct.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another method being explored is releasing sterile males in areas where there are pockets of mosquito-spread diseases, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although mosquitoes can carry diseases, they are an important part of the food chain &#8211; as nourishment for fish, birds, bats and frogs, for example &#8211; and some are important pollinators.<\/p>\n\n                <p><strong>DISCLAIMER: <\/strong>The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.<\/p>      \n               \n <!-- Post Tags -->\n                \n\n                        \n\n    \n                                 \n                                             \n                    <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Malaria is caused by a complex parasite which is spread by mosquito bites. Scientists believe they have found a quirky way to fight mosquito-spread diseases such as dengue, yellow fever and Zika &#8211; by turning male insects deaf so they struggle to mate and breed. Mosquitoes have sex while flying in mid-air and the males [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":235900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-top-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Novel way to beat dengue: Deaf mosquitoes stop having sex - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/11\/05\/novel-way-to-beat-dengue-deaf-mosquitoes-stop-having-sex\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Novel way to beat dengue: Deaf mosquitoes stop having sex - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Malaria is caused by a complex parasite which is spread by mosquito bites. Scientists believe they have found a quirky way to fight mosquito-spread diseases such as dengue, yellow fever and Zika &#8211; by turning male insects deaf so they struggle to mate and breed. Mosquitoes have sex while flying in mid-air and the males [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/11\/05\/novel-way-to-beat-dengue-deaf-mosquitoes-stop-having-sex\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-11-05T04:19:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Capture-20.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"448\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ghana News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ghana News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/05\\\/novel-way-to-beat-dengue-deaf-mosquitoes-stop-having-sex\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/05\\\/novel-way-to-beat-dengue-deaf-mosquitoes-stop-having-sex\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ghana News\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c70749f3edfbfcd92d45e933f0fe10b5\"},\"headline\":\"Novel way to beat dengue: Deaf mosquitoes stop having sex\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-11-05T04:19:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/05\\\/novel-way-to-beat-dengue-deaf-mosquitoes-stop-having-sex\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":447,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/05\\\/novel-way-to-beat-dengue-deaf-mosquitoes-stop-having-sex\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/10\\\/Capture-20.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Top News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/05\\\/novel-way-to-beat-dengue-deaf-mosquitoes-stop-having-sex\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/05\\\/novel-way-to-beat-dengue-deaf-mosquitoes-stop-having-sex\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/05\\\/novel-way-to-beat-dengue-deaf-mosquitoes-stop-having-sex\\\/\",\"name\":\"Novel way to beat dengue: Deaf mosquitoes stop having sex - 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