GMO Mosquitoes May Have Unintended Consequences, Scientists Warn

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Researchers have developed a new technique to genetically alter insects that promises to eradicate many mosquito-born diseases within a few years. But scientists warn the move could unleash disastrous unintended consequences for the environment.

The method — known as mutagenic chain reaction, or MCR — works by bypassing a key barrier to the rapid spread of genes within an insect population, ensuring that almost all offspring born of a genetically modified parent will have the ability to pass along a mutated gene — in this case, one that makes a mosquito resistant to malaria and incapable of passing the disease to humans.