Abstract
Developing GM insects for sustainable pest control in agriculture and human health
Highlights
Oxitec Ltd, 71 Milton Park, Oxford OX14 4RQ, UK presents the risk of accidental escapes of fertile, massreared pests
A femalespecific variant of RIDL, called fsRIDL, offers a means of producing male-only cohorts of the insects on a large scale. These have been developed in the Tephritid fruit flies olive fly (Bactrocera oleae) and Medfly, and the Lepidoptera diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella) and pink bollworm (Pectinophora gossypiella), using sex-alternate splicing sequences from sex determination genes to regulate female-specific expression of the tTA effector gene, conferring tetracycline-repressible lethality in females only [4,5,6]
After fsRIDL males are released into the field they find and mate with wild females, the female progeny of which do not survive: as with RIDL and the SIT, with sustained releases the reproductive capacity of the wild population crashes
Summary
Oxitec Ltd, 71 Milton Park, Oxford OX14 4RQ, UK presents the risk of accidental escapes of fertile, massreared pests. After fsRIDL males are released into the field they find and mate with wild females, the female progeny of which do not survive: as with RIDL and the SIT, with sustained releases the reproductive capacity of the wild population crashes. Laboratory experiments have been conducted to characterise traits relevant to future field performance, such as longevity, male mating competitiveness and penetrance of the engineered trait when reared on natural host plants (compared to artificial diets).
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