Hey, Let's Genetically Modify Some Skeeters And Release Them... What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
In Brazil's microcephaly epidemic, one vital question
remains unanswered: how did the Zika virus suddenly learn how to disrupt
the development of human embryos? The answer may lie in a sequence of
'jumping DNA' used to engineer the virus's mosquito vector - and
released into the wild four years ago in the precise area of Brazil
where the microcephaly crisis is most acute.
Crazy.
ReplyDeleteIf that's what has happened, that would be very interesting. It was males that were GMOs, and only the females bite. So there would be a serious and very unpredictable jump into humans. It's just possible that the boffins are simply grasping at straws and don't really know what has happened.
ReplyDeleteMight not be a stretch at all if the offspring survival rate is 15% as the article states.
ReplyDeleteHalf of them should be female.
Might not be a stretch at all if the offspring survival rate is 15% as the article states.
ReplyDeleteHalf of them should be female.
If you read to the end you see that the hypothese was tested. The Zika virus genome (which is fairly small) was tested and the piggyBac sequence was not found. This means the Zika virus did not transport the piggyBac 'gene' into the victims. The virus appears to have done the damage on its own.
ReplyDelete