Mosquito-borne disease
Mosquito-borne diseases or mosquito-borne illnesses are diseases caused by bacteria, viruses or parasites transmitted by mosquitoes. They can transmit disease without being affected themselves. Nearly 700 million people get a mosquito-borne illness each year resulting in over one million deaths.
Genetically modified organism
Fungi, being the most common pathogens of insects, make attractive biopesticides. Unlike bacteria and viruses they have the advantage of infecting the insects by contact alone, although they are out competed in efficiency by chemical pesticides. Genetic engineering can improve virulence, usually by adding more virulent proteins, increasing infection rate or enhancing spore persistence. Many of the disease carrying vectors are susceptible to entomopathogenic fungi. An attractive target for biological control are mosquitos, vectors for a range of deadly diseases, including malaria, yellow fever and dengue fever. Mosquitos can evolve quickly so it becomes a balancing act of killing them before the "Plasmodium" they carry becomes the infectious disease, but not so fast that they become resistant to the fungi. By genetically engineering fungi like "Metarhizium anisopliae" and "Beauveria bassiana" to delay the development of mosquito infectiousness the selection pressure to evolve resistance is reduced. Another strategy is to add proteins to the fungi that block transmission of malaria or remove the "Plasmodium" altogether.