TRANSFER OF TOXIN GENES TO ALTERNATE BACTERIAL HOSTS FOR MOSQUITO-CONTROL

Mosquitoes are vector of serious human and animal diseases, such as ma laria, dengue, yellow fever, among others. The use of biological contr ol agents has provide an environmentally safe and highly specific alte rnative to the use of chemical insecticides in the control of vector b orne diseases. Bacillus thuringiensis and B. sphaericus produce toxic proteins to mosquito larvae. Great progress has been made on the bioch emical and molecular characterization of such proteins and the genes e ncoding them. Nevertheless, the low residuality of these biological in secticides is one of the major drawbacks. This article present some in teresting aspects of the mosquito larvae feeding habits and review the attempts that have been made to genetically engineer microorganisms t hat while are used by mosquito larvae as a food source should express the Bacillus toxin genes in order to improve the residuality and stabi lity in the mosquito breeding ponds.