Mosquito gene map has been completed

An international team has completed the genetic mapping of Aedes aegypti, creating a precursor to finding ways to prevent yellow fever and tropical fever transmitted by this mosquito.

Mosquito: The enemy of humans

Do you know, who killed the most? - Mosquitoes! That is the most killer animal. Strictly speaking, according to data provided by the health sector, millions of people around the world die from mosquito-borne diseases every year such as malaria, yellow fever, tropical fever (dengue fever) .

According to scientists, malaria causes the deaths of 1.5 million people, mainly African children, every year. As for yellow fever, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that about 30,000 people worldwide die from this disease every year.

Although there has been a vaccine in use for decades, the number of people with yellow fever has increased over the past 20 years. Tropical fever alone occurs in about 100 tropical countries and causes 25,000 deaths each year. There is currently no vaccine to prevent this disease.

Touching mosquitoes attacking people and spreading diseases (Photo: imm.ul.pt)

Mosquito gene map: A powerful weapon .

There are about 3,500 species of mosquitoes but Aedes aegypti and Anopheles mosquitoes are the two most dangerous to human life. Anopheles gambiae mosquito genome with dengue spores causing dengue fever was published in 2002.

Now, an international team has built a map of the genes of the immune system of Aedes aegypti, a yellow-fever and tropical fever. Talking about the meaning of the study, Vishvanath Nene, the leader of the research team at the J. Craig Venter Institute based in Rockville, Maryland, said: ' This is a major global health event.'

The team compared the immunological genes of Aedes mosquitoes with flies that suck fruit fruits and Anopheles mosquitoes. The results show that the immune genes of two different mosquito species share some similarities, but at the same time there are some differences. That explains why Aedes mosquitoes transmit yellow fever and tropical fever while Anopheles mosquitoes transmit dengue fever.

Catching mosquitoes to study (Photo: aaes.uark.edu)

According to a report by Science scientists, the Aedes mosquito genome is five times larger than the genome of the Anopheles mosquito. Both have about 16,000 genes but Aedes mosquitoes have many unidentified biological functions.

Finding the gene that is involved in viral transmission is a good start to help researchers find new ways to combat these diseases.

Anopheles mosquito (Photo: Eb.com)

According to them, with this mosquito gene map, they can study effective insecticides or create genetic structural versions of the mosquito that cause them to lose or reduce the possibility of infection with yellow fever virus. and tropical fever.

Mosquitoes first appeared about 170 million years ago in the Great Dinosaur. Scientists believe that mosquitoes that cause yellow fever and tropical fever have differentiated about 150 million years ago.

According to one of the researchers, David Severson, University of Notre Dame, these mosquitoes are very healthy, their favorite food is human blood. Their appearance and behavior are very different and their genetic structure is also very, very different.

Aedes is a small, black mosquito, with white spots on its body and long legs. Aedes mosquitoes can spread disease when they suck blood from people making food. They originated in Africa. Over the centuries, humans have accidentally spread this mosquito throughout the world during their oceanic travels.

Humor Severon said: " OK, it's a really beautiful mosquito ," and he added: "Only entomologists can love them ."

Minh Minh