A class of selfish genes that cause the death of all offspring that do not inherit them could be used to help the spread of genetically modified mosquitoes that are resistant to malaria, scientists say.

The release of genetically modified mosquitoes that cannot pass malaria to people has been proposed as a new approach to controlling the disease, which kills up to 2.7 million people each year, but the strategy relies on the insects replacing their normal cousins in the wild.

Research in the US suggests that the chances could be improved by tying malaria resistance genes to another set of genes that kill offspring that do not inherit them.

These genes are known as “Medea elements” and they work generally through the female line, spreading rapidly through the population by ensuring that all living offspring carry them.

In a study published in the journal Science, a team led by Chun-Hong Chen, of the California Institute of Technology, described how the introduction of a Medea gene into Drosophila fruit flies led rapidly to its spread throughout a colony.

The scientists suggested that a similar mechanism could be used to ensure that GM mosquitoes that resisted malaria would supplant natural cousins that could still transmit the parasite to humans.

If a Medea gene could be coupled to the malaria resistance gene, any eggs laid by GM mosquitoes that failed to inherit it would fail to hatch.

Last week, a team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, announced the first evidence that GM mosquitoes that resist malaria can out-compete wild insects and dominate populations.

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