Controlling mosquitoes

Interfering in mosquitoes' sex lives could help halt the spread of malaria, British scientists say.

A study on the species of mosquito mainly responsible for malaria transmission in Africa, Anopheles gambiae, showed that because these mosquitoes mate only once in their lives, meddling with that process could dramatically cut their numbers. Researchers from Imperial College London found that a "mating plug" -- used by male mosquitoes to ensure their sperm stays in the right place after mating -- is essential for the fertilization of eggs during the female's lifetime.

Without the mating plug, sperm is not stored properly and fertilisation is disrupted, the researchers found out. The researchers’ team analysed the composition of the mating plug and found that it is formed when an enzyme called transglutaminase interacts with proteins in the male mosquito's seminal fluid. This interaction causes the fluid to clot into a gelatinous solid mass.

When the researchers knocked out the enzyme in male mosquitoes, the plug could not form and reproduction failed. If this process could be developed for use in the field, perhaps in a spray form like an insecticide, it could effectively induce sterility in female mosquitoes in the wild.