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Brazil Puts Mosquito on the Map
Researchers from the University of Sao Paulo and
Pasteur Institute have completed the genetic map
of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, transmitter of
yellow fever and dengue.
The study reported in Science magazine gives the
world a sophisticated weapon with which to fight
both maladies, which annually claim 50 million
victims in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Biochemist Sergio Verjovski Almeida, coordinator
of the Brazilian team in the $440,000 project,
called the genome key data to develop more
efficient tools to fight the vector.
The generic pesticides in use affect the central
nervous system of all mosquitoes, but the genome
will facilitate extermination without affecting
the environment and by interfering with this
mosquito's sensitive olfactory apparatus.
Aedes Aegypti will also be vulnerable to genetic
modification;, Verjovski explained, as it is one
of few mosquitoes that does not die when
infected, but converts into the disease
transmitter.
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