Females to be wiped out
`Scientists hoping to stop the inexorable march of the cane toad are working on a gene that would ensure all the pest’s offspring are male – wiping out future egg-laying mothers.
The University of Queensland’s Peter Koopman has been developing a “daughterless gene” that would limit the toad’s population by eradicating females, which are able to lay tens of thousands of eggs at time.
“I am hoping to engineer a strain of toads where the male offspring stay male and the female offspring become male,” Professor Koopman said at yesterday’s national cane toad conference in Brisbane. ‘
