{"id":14577,"date":"2023-09-12T04:08:30","date_gmt":"2023-09-11T22:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=14577"},"modified":"2025-04-02T21:31:47","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T16:01:47","slug":"gene-drive-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/gene-drive-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"Gene-Drive Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>About Gene-Drive Technology<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>A gene drive is a type of\u00a0<strong>genetic engineering technique<\/strong> that\u00a0<strong>modifies genes<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>This technology was\u00a0<strong>conceived by Austin Burt<\/strong>, professor at Imperial College London.<\/li>\n<li>This technique could be an effective way to eradicate nuisance species, such as\u00a0<strong>malaria-causing mosquitoes.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Under this technique mosquitoes will\u00a0<strong>selectively inherit some genes<\/strong>, rather than the inheritance to follow the rules of Mendelian genetics.<\/li>\n<li>In this a\u00a0<strong>protein cuts the mosquito\u2019s DNA<\/strong> at a part that doesn\u2019t encode a particular sequence in the genome.<\/li>\n<li>This triggers a natural mechanism in the cell containing the DNA to repair it and forces the cell to\u00a0<strong>incorporate a sequence, called the drive sequence<\/strong>, into the damaged portion.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Recent development<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Researchers at Imperial College London genetically enhanced a gene expressed in the midgut of mosquitoes to secrete two antimicrobial\u00a0<strong>substances called magainin 2 and melittin.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>They are detrimental to the Plasmodium parasite\u2019s development in the midgut and also reduce the lifespan of female mosquitoes.<\/li>\n<li>Computational modelling studies have suggested that this approach could\u00a0<strong>significantly disrupt malaria transmission.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1) What is Malaria?<\/h3>\n<p>Malaria is a serious and potentially life-threatening infectious disease caused by parasites of the Plasmodium genus. It is primarily transmitted to humans through the bite of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. Malaria is a significant global health issue, particularly in tropical and subtropical regions of the world.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/science\/mosquito-control-gene-drive-technology-benefits-risks\/article67287784.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Buzzing breakthrough: Genetic engineering gives mosquito control an upgrade<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gene-drive technology is a type of genetic engineering technique that modifies genes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":14578,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14577","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}