Insecticides are our traditional way of defending ourselves against insects. But this approach presents several problems. For one, there is a lack of specificity. We may only be bothered by one species, but when we useย insecticidesย we kill them all, so the ecological impact is much greater because we also kill beneficial insects. Another problem is that some of the insecticides that have been used were so-called forever chemicals, so they remain in the environment for a long time.
However, genetic engineering can help. CRISPR/Cas9 is a technology that allows us to make a site-specific modification to any living organismโs genome. We can flip this approach on its head: instead of using this technique on an insectโs genome to make a specific change, we can transform an insect so that its genome contains everything necessary for CRISPR/Cas9 to be activated at a given moment and induce sterility. It would be like hiding a complete CRISPR/Cas9 kit in its genome, along with the instructions for modifying a particular gene to produce sterility. What is the advantage of doing that? If we simply disperse sterile males, those that are not sterile will continue to procreate (sterilization is never 100% and you have to compete with the native population), and in a few generations the effect will have disappeared.
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