Comments on: Life-shortening bacteria vs. dengue mosquitoes

By: Sue Ferenczy

Sue Ferenczy — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:18:50 +0000

Man, you guys are smart. How I know this is that I actually understood what you said, but only because you spoke in conversational English! And I laughed like silly when I read the translation of “PhD student”: mosquito bait, a la jr. scientist! Have fun, and let me know when “evolve” changes flavor from “Who is God?” to “Hello, God!” It’s more fun knowing Him than being a distant observer in a lab!
I am researching, quote-unquote, leishmaniasis out of concern for the kids in Iraq, one of whom is my son. He is serving (time) in a locked down Army base, only helping when called upon by the Iraqi government. Strange place to be. Sitting duck no bull!

By: MattK

MattK — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:07:36 +0000

I also think it is teh awesome

By: Ed Yong

Ed Yong — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:17:23 +0000

Thank God somebody pointed it out

By: Christine

Christine — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:14:08 +0000

perhaps I’ll seem silly for pointing it out, but the LOLbachia is freakin’ hilarious. ^_^

By: Jim Thomerson

Jim Thomerson — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 18:38:19 +0000

The comments on use of annual killifish by Jonathan Matias are interesting. I think annuals would be useful in many situations. DNA analyis by Murphy and Collier (1997) supports the idea of New World and African Aplocheiloids as sister groups. Annuals appear scattered around among non-annuals; so I think looking at annualism from a phylogenetic viewpoint rather than as a unified phenomenon would be fruitful. Take a look at Jason Podrabsky’s publications on Austrofuldulus. My 1971 paper on Rachovia hummelincki was based on misidentification of its sister species, which we later described as Rachovia pyropunctata. Oh well! There is a Podrabsky and Hrbek paper on pool limnology which documents the different water chemistry of pools inhabited by the two species.
‘Fertilized embryos’ is not correct, it is rather, ‘fertilized eggs’.

By: Jonathan Matias

Jonathan Matias — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 18:04:45 +0000

Great article on mosquito control. There is so much information out there and easy to miss the basic ones that may be more immediate and practical. Biocontrol has received so little interest in the last three decades as the scientific direction focused on vaccines. We have also been working on understanding mosquito biocontrol through a different direction, i.e., using fishes that mimic the life cycle of mosquitoes in alternating wet and dry season. Although larvivorous fishes have had important contributions in malaria control in the last 100 years, the use of fish have declined with DDT and the increased focus on vaccine development which have yet to show real practical use. Annual fish represent the next step up in the use of larvivorous fish to feed on the aquatic stages of mosquitoes. The annual fish population can survive drought in temporary pools by depositing embryos in the substrate that can withstand dry conditions, perhaps using the same mechanism as the tardigrades you have written about recently. Just like the use of bacteria, mosquitoes are less likely to develop resistance against larval predators. Theoretically, once introduced in a temporary pool, the annual fish population can continue to maintain a population in such a habitat where no other fish can survive. Just recently, we have entered into a working agreement with the Tanzanian government to do a pilot field trial on using these indigenous fishes for biocontrol in temporary pools of freshwater. If any of your readers might be interested in this, I have some background information on annual fish biology in the following links. http://www.poseidonsciences.com/annualfish.html http://www.poseidonsciences.com/biocontrol.html http://www.poseidonsciences.com/annual_fish_biology_survival_strategy.pdf Looking forward to your comments. Regards, Jonathan R. Matias

By: Baltimoron

Baltimoron — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 02:28:21 +0000

What happens when the mosquitoes develop an immunity? Can scientists mutate the weaponized bacteria fast enough to keep up with compensatory mutations in mosquitoes undermining the weapon?