Deaf Male Mosquitoes Cannot Mate

 

    Mating between mosquitoes usually takes place within a few seconds in midair and happens fairly frequently, but not in this one study where it was discovered that deaf male mosquitoes cannot mate. Male mosquitoes are constantly searching for potential mates and are attracted by the sound of the flapping of the females’ wings at about 500 Hz. They generally give of a sound at about 800 Hz and generate this sound when females are around. Scientists suspected that sound played a crucial role in the mosquito mating process, so they used CRISPR-Cas9 to remove the trpVa gene from Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. The absence of the trpVa gene alone caused these mosquitoes to completely lose interest in mating, effectively killing their libido. If they cannot hear the sound of the females’ wings, they have no interest in mating, as they are not sexually aroused. It was found that the effect of the loss of the trpVa gene in females was minimal in comparison, as they were still able to mate.

    This is an important discovery in my opinion, as many behaviors such as mating in most organisms are dependent on multiple factors instead of just one. The fact that changing only a single gene can halt mating and reproduction in this organism completely is profound. This is something that can be extremely useful in further research. The ability to cease mating completely within an organism has the potential to be used to control and manipulate the population of that organism for a variety of uses, and can have a wide range of impacts upon the population and its surrounding ecosystem.