LAUSR

Mosquito Control Malaria persistently evades our best efforts to eliminate it. Pike et al. genetically modified malaria vector mosquitoes to be more immune-resistant to infection by the parasite, which altered the composition of the mosquitoes' gut bacteria. Genetically modified male (female) mosquitoes preferentially mated with wild-type females (males). Ten generations later, the genetically modified mosquitoes constituted 90% of a caged population without losing resistance to the malaria parasite. In an alternative strategy, Wang et al. engineered mosquitoes' gut bacteria. A strain of nonpathogenic bacteria, AS1, was both sexually and transgenerationally transmitted. The strain infected a laboratory population of mosquitoes and persisted for at least three generations. AS1 engineered to inhibit malaria parasite development in the midgut could do so without handicapping the mosquitoes. Science , this issue p. [1396][1], p. [1399][2] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aak9691 [2]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aan5478