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A transgenic male-only strain of the New World screwworm for an improved control program using the sterile insect technique
- Source :
- BMC Biology
- Publisher :
- Springer Nature
-
Abstract
- Background The New World screwworm, Cochliomyia hominivorax, is a devastating pest of livestock endemic to subtropical and tropical regions of the Western hemisphere. The larvae of this species feed on the tissue of living animals, including man, and can cause death if untreated. Over 60 years ago, the sterile insect technique (SIT) was developed with the aim of eradicating this pest, initially from Florida but subsequently from all of North and Central America. From the outset it was appreciated that SIT would be more efficient if only sterile males were released in the field, but this was not possible until now. Results Here, we report on the development and evaluation of the first sexing strains of C. hominivorax that produce only males when raised on diet without tetracycline. Transgenic lines have been developed that possess a tetracycline repressible female-lethal genetic system. Ten of these lines show high female lethality at the late larval/pupal stages and three of them present dominant female lethality. Most of the lines were comparable to the wild type parental strain in several fitness parameters that are relevant to mass rearing in a production facility. Further, three lines performed well in male mating success and male competition assays, suggesting they would be sexually competitive in the field. Consequently, one transgenic line has been selected by the New World Screwworm Program for evaluation under mass rearing conditions. Conclusions We conclude that the promising characteristics of the selected sexing strains may contribute to reduce production costs for the existing eradication program and provide more efficient population suppression, which should make a genetic control program more economical in regions were C. hominivorax remains endemic. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12915-016-0296-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine
Male
Physiology
Plant Science
01 natural sciences
Animals, Genetically Modified
Sterile insect technique
Sexual Behavior, Animal
Structural Biology
Larva
education.field_of_study
Agricultural and Biological Sciences(all)
Pupa
Genetic Techniques
Livestock
Female
New World screwworm
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
Cochliomyia hominivorax
Biotechnology
Research Article
Population
Zoology
Sexing
Biology
Risk Assessment
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Genetic control
03 medical and health sciences
Animals
education
Pest Control, Biological
tTA
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Male-only
Transformer
business.industry
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)
Diptera
Sterilization
Cell Biology
Tetracycline
biology.organism_classification
010602 entomology
030104 developmental biology
Commentary
PEST analysis
business
Developmental Biology
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 17417007
- Volume :
- 14
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- BMC Biology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....b6030a8dab780bfdc72ffdf50fc4c08c
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-016-0296-8