Pond algae commonly eaten by mosquito larvae have been genetically engineered
to kill the insects. Mass-produced and spread on stagnant ponds where mosquitoes
breed, the algae could provide an environmentally benign method of control.
Dov Borovsky and his colleagues at the University of Florida鈥檚 medical
entomology laboratory in Vero Beach equipped the Chlorella algae with a gene
that makes a hormone lethal to the larvae. Trypsin-modulating oostatic
factor鈥攏ormally made in the ovaries of mature female
mosquitoes鈥攍eaches out from the algae and prevents the larvae from
digesting food. 鈥淭hey die in two days,鈥� says Borovsky.