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October 10, 2005

Mosquito created to have 'Green Testacles'

Topics: General Science

No, I didn't make this up, and believe it or not, there's a very good reason for creating a mosquito with glowing green testicles - and it's isn't to make them sexy. You can only see them glow under ultraviolet light, but that's got nothing to do with the reason behind their creation. These guys have a devastating effect on mosquito populations in the wild.

Scientists in London have created a mosquito with glowing testicles in a bid to stamp out malaria.

The male mosquitoes are genetically modified to make them infertile so when they mate with females, no more mosquitoes are produced.

The mosquitoes' sperm has been made fluorescent green so they can be easily identified from females.

This makes the mosquitoes' testicles glow under ultraviolet light, enabling scientists to separate the two sexes.

The males are then sterilised and released into the wild, causing a crash in the local mosquito population within weeks.

Read more to find out how this works...

Posted by Richard at October 10, 2005 1:25 PM

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