Research into the potential genetic modification of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito in order to block transmission of the dengue virus to humans is being carried out by the Zoology Department of Government College University (GCU).
In a statement issued here on Sunday, GCU’s chief zoologist Nusrat Jahan said the research project was being carried out in collaboration with the Michigan State University.
Jahan said Wolbachia, a type of bacteria, would be used as a biological agent for genetic modification in the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
She said this would make the mosquito incapable of carrying and transmitting the dengue virus.
She said isolation of Wolabchia was in progress at the GCU laboratories and a PhD thesis was also underway on the subject.
She said Wolbachia was a maternally transmitted, gram-negative endosymbiotic bacterium that infected more than 65 per cent of all insect species and 28 per cent of the surveyed mosquito species.
Jahan said genetic modification of the mosquito was a possible solution to completely eradicate dengue virus from the country.
She said genetic modification was a complex process and would take time.
GCU Vice Chancellor Khaleequr Rahman has requested the Higher Education Commission to help purchase equipment required for the research. He has also ordered the departments of biotechnology and botany at the GCU to extend technical support to the Zoology Department for the research.
Earlier, addressing the seminar on Advanced Research on Dengue Control organised by the GCU in connection with the Dengue Day, Jahan said the GCU had cultured a water dispersible granule, Bti-WDG, which was found highly toxic for the mosquito’s larvae in the local conditions.
She hoped that they would soon start commercial production of Bti-WDG which would be helpful for dengue fever control.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 19th, 2013.