The study will follow Anopheles gambiae from the larval stage to adulthood to death. First, the team will set up low-tech artificial breeding sites (i.e., small pools of water) to simulate the aquatic environment where larvae start their life. The key question, says Charles Godfray, a biologist at Oxford who is working on the study, is which competitors benefit when you take out Anopheles gambiae larvae: harmless insects, or other carriers of deadly disease?

There are more than 3,000 mosquito species in the world, of which 70 can transmit malaria. (Many others transmit diseases such as yellow fever, Chikungunya, Zika, etc.) Anopheles gambiae, a complex of eight closely related species, is the dominant vector of malaria. If targeting Anopheles gambiae means trading one malaria-carrying mosquito for another, though, that may not be much progress. This question of targeted elimination is newly relevant because of the possibility of Anopheles gambiae–specific genetic engineering, as opposed to indiscriminately murderous pesticides like DDT.

On the other hand, Godfray says, “Anopheles gambiae, it really is our mosquito. It really has evolved with us.” It lives near humans. It favors human blood more than virtually any other kind of mosquito. “It’s quite hard to think about what could replace it that is worse,” he added.

The study will also look at the animals that are eating mosquitoes. Bats, for example, are known predators. “We can go into a bat roost and we can collect the feces,” Godfray says. The team will actually analyze the DNA pooped out by bats with a technique called DNA barcoding, which uses short stretches of the genetic material to quickly identify specific species. The results will help the researchers determine what proportion of the bats’ diet is composed of Anopheles gambiae.

Two ways of making malaria-proof mosquitoes

DNA barcoding can also be used to track Anopheles gambiae as pollinators. Mosquitoes feed on nectar, and they pick up pollen as they fly from flower to flower. The team will collect mosquitoes, collect the pollen grains they carry, and use DNA barcoding to identity the plant species the pollen came from.

Everything scientists already know about mosquitoes suggests that eliminating Anopheles gambiae won’t majorly impact the ecosystem. Anopheles gambiae seems to make up only a small percentage of the diet for animals that eat it, and only a small percentage of the pollination for plants that rely on it, says Mamadou Coulibaly, a malaria researcher at the University of Bamako in Mali who has worked with Target Malaria on other studies. Still, he hopes this study will help people better understand and accept the work of Target Malaria. “We cannot take anything for granted,” he says, especially when working with such potentially powerful technology.