Genetically modified fungus 'kills 99% of malaria mosquitoes'

[ferrous]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-48464510

Conducting the study, researchers at the University of Maryland in the US - and the IRSS research institute in Burkina Faso - first identified a fungus called Metarhizium pingshaense, which naturally infects the Anopheles mosquitoes that spread malaria.

The next stage was to enhance the fungus. "They're very malleable, you can genetically engineer them very easily," Prof Raymond St Leger, from the University of Maryland, told BBC News.

They turned to a toxin found in the venom of a species of funnel-web spider in Australia.

The genetic instructions for making the toxin were added to the fungus's own genetic code so it would start making the toxin once it was inside a mosquito.

[Grink Of Meat]

I can't shake the feeling that this could backfire somehow.

[Saphirx]

is this how Last of Us becomes reality?

[Stormbuster]

This genus of fungus is known to infect not only mosquitoes, but also roaches, termites, beetles, locusts, beetles and ticks (which are arachnids, meaning it infects two different classes to various levels). Interestingly, it does not seem to affect bees, but is rather immune to fungicides, meaning it's release would effectively be non-reversible.

That being said, the various species are already used globally as a pesticide , but on the opposite extreme, it could cause a biological collapse of the food chain if it spreads throughout orthopterans and coleopterans, though said collapse would also be accompanied by either a redistribution of other species into their niches or just outright the success of plants in their wake due to the lack of insect predation, a prime cause of loss of many crops and forestry.

It's likely very, very risky, but with a quarter-of-a-billion people infected by malaria every year, a quarter-of-a-million people dying from it every year and the prospects of it spreading as the Earth warms, don't be surprised if this risk is taken, considering the alternative of malaria's presence spreading to near-cosmopolitan levels and ravaging society, everywhere.

[Sableye]

What could go wrong with venomous fungus that spreads through the air?

[Curls]

Fuck it we need a good societal collapse

[J.C.DentonUNATCO]

RIP beetles but sounds like an overall net win to me.

[MR-X]

Not really, Beetles are important to the eco-system.

[Swilly]

Most of the bugs in question, outside of mosquitos, are actually super important for plant life as they tent to focus on the weaker parts of plants.

[Shirt.]

No we don't. I happen to like air conditioning, running water and a strong legal system that doesn't automatically assume I'm guilty and you'll have to pry these things from my cold dead hands.

[Curls]

Its ok. Facepunch will survive by creating a megabunker the likes of which no man will ever encounter.

[Jessica Cannon]

Eating you first.