Researchers at the University of Maryland collaborated with the IRSS research institute in Burkina Faso to develop a genetically modified fungus that produces a toxin to kill off populations of malaria-carrying mosquitoes, reported the BBC.
Trials of the new fungus have already been carried out in Burkina Faso and have found that the genetically enhanced spider toxin produced by the fungi have wiped out 99 percent of mosquito populations in just 45 days.
The fungus, which naturally invades mosquitoes, was joined with the venom of a species of Australian funnel-web spider. The genetic instructions for the production of the venom in the spider were added to the fungus’s own DNA to prompt the production of the toxin by the fungus itself once a spore encountered a mosquito.
Testing showed that the fungus modified with the spider venom could kill more efficiently and without needing to emit as many spores.
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