[Wuzzy]

I don't think this is a real concern, for two reasons: first, how should such a "transfer of genes" to another species proceed? This is not how it works.

Secondly, these genes are pretty much self-regulating; they disappear from the population in one generation. They almost certainly won't be in the ecosystem long enough in order to play a role in any improbable scenario.

[rkalla]

> first, how should such a "transfer of genes" to another species proceed? This is not how it works.

Couldn't a viral infection do this? Some virus that existed inside the mosquito could be modified by (or modify itself in response to) this generic engineering and then transfered to an unintended host.

> They almost certainly won't be in the ecosystem long enough

Your use of absolutes here (with respect to the unknown) makes me want to turn on the news and wait for the big announcement that this new breed of mosquitos has unknowingly caused an undead plague in Africa ;)

NOTE: I am not saying this should have never been tested. I am just surprised how little is known before a public trial was executed.

[Wuzzy]

> Couldn't a viral infection do this?

I still don't see how exactly. E.g., even if it "modified itself in response to this genetic engineering" then it wouldn't really transfer the lethal gene into another species, would it?

> Your use of absolutes here (...)

Which absolutes exactly are you talking about? :) Nothing absolute in the "almost certainly" statement, in my opinion.

> I am just surprised how little is known before a public trial was executed.

What do you mean by "is known"?

[rkalla]

> Which absolutes exactly are you talking about? :) Nothing absolute in the "almost certainly" statement, in my opinion.

heh, very true. I was just having some fun and wanted to work zombie-apocalypse into my reply somewhere :)

> What do you mean by "is known"?

NPR covered this on science friday I think 2 or 3 weeks ago with folks close to the project (not from the project, but familiar with it) and all these same questions about how this will spread in the wild, what could go wrong and if it had been tested in any large-scale deployments all seemed to be questions that were up-in-the-air.

There wasn't any concrete comments like: "The team did a test deployment in a quarantined marsh and published the results".

I had the impression from that show (and this story) that the path from conception to design to deployment was really fast.

I am not a geneticist though. It is very possible that this type of work is not something to lose sleep over and I have too many Hollywood premises running through my head.

[mrleinad]

Monsanto said the same thing about their genetically enhanced crop. Now those genes that rendered those crops resistant to roundup, have been transfered to other plants such as amaranto.