Scientists Target Deaf Mosquitoes as New Weapon Against Dengue

Researchers have developed an unusual approach to reduce mosquito populations and control the spread of diseases like dengue and Zika—by making male mosquitoes unable to hear, thus preventing them from mating.

Mosquitoes rely on their hearing while in flight to locate potential mates through the sound of female wingbeats. Scientists confirmed this by altering a genetic pathway responsible for male mosquito hearing in an experiment.

The modified males did not mate with females, even after spending three days in the same cage. Reduced mating leads to fewer offspring, which would naturally decrease mosquito populations.

Since female mosquitoes are responsible for transmitting most mosquito-borne diseases, reducing their numbers could significantly lower disease spread.

The team, from the University of California, Irvine, studied Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, known for infecting nearly 400 million people annually. The mating process in these mosquitoes can last a few seconds up to a minute.

The researchers focused on a protein called trpVa, which is essential for mosquito hearing. Male mosquitoes with this protein disrupted showed no response to female flight sounds, effectively rendering them deaf. While the modified males failed to mate, unmodified males successfully fertilized nearly all females in the same setting.

Published in the journal PNAS, the study concluded that disabling the hearing gene entirely prevented mating in deafened males. Scientists suggest this technique could eventually lead to a sharp reduction, or even extinction, of female mosquito populations.