There are reasonable concerns about using genetic modifications to kill things like mosquitos, but why don’t we use this tech against invasive species which we want to be absolutely removed from an ecosystem?
It would be simple to solve that with a breeding population kept isolated. If the genetic modification wipes out the wild population, you reintroduce it.
For species that reproduce quickly, such as insects, this is reasonable.
That said the mosquito trick is that we can produce drones whose babies are also only drones with the same genetic malfunction. The number of drone-only mosquitoes expands exponentially until they are most of the males, then most of the population, and then in a couple of more generations, the population is wiped out for lack of females.
I'm not sure that this would work as well for a species that moves more slowly. Or whether we know how to do the trick for species other than mosquitoes.
wysifnwyg|6 years ago
btilly|6 years ago
For species that reproduce quickly, such as insects, this is reasonable.
That said the mosquito trick is that we can produce drones whose babies are also only drones with the same genetic malfunction. The number of drone-only mosquitoes expands exponentially until they are most of the males, then most of the population, and then in a couple of more generations, the population is wiped out for lack of females.
I'm not sure that this would work as well for a species that moves more slowly. Or whether we know how to do the trick for species other than mosquitoes.