Question

1. A.F. Read and colleagues hold out hope for creating an evolution-proof insecticide for malaria control. Would that work for other diseases spread by insects or ticks (e.g. Zika, Lyme disease)? Why or why not?

2.Could we use the same theories to create an evolution-proof antibiotic? Why or why not?

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Answer 1

Question

1. A.F. Read and colleagues hold out hope for creating an evolution-proof insecticide for malaria control . This would not work for tick and other virus disease like zika because malaria causing parasite physiology and body structure is different . Therefore antibiotic targeted specifically against specific protein structure of parasite will not be effective against the virus or any tick protein.

2. Yes, we could same theories to create an evolution -proof antibiotic. This is because resistance against antibiotics is a consequence of evolution via natural selection. The microbes modify their protein structure by mutation in such a way that antibiotics made for targeting these structure in microbes will not work.