The sterile insect technique for the management of the spotted wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii: Establishing the optimum irradiation dose.

Geneviève Lanouette,Jacques Brodeur,François Fournier,Véronique Martel,Annabelle Firlej,Carlos Cáceres,Marc Vreysen,Erjun Ling

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0180821

Abstract

The spotted wing drosophila Drosophila suzukii Matsumura (Diptera: Drosophilidae), a pest of berries stone fruits, invaded North America and Europe in 2008. Current control methods rely mainly on insecticides. The sterile insect technique (SIT) has potential as an additional control tactic for the integrated management of D. suzukii. As a step towards the development of the SIT, this study aimed at finding the optimum irradiation dose to sterilize D. suzukii under controlled laboratory conditions. Four-day-old D. suzukii pupae were irradiated 12 to 24 hours prior to adult emergence in a 60Co Gamma Cell 220 and in a 137Cs Gamma Cell 3000 with doses of 30, 50, 70, 80, 90, 100 or 120 Gy. Emergence rate (88.1%), percent of deformed flies (4.0%) and survival curves were not affected by the tested irradiation doses. However, some reproductive parameters of the flies were affected by irradiation. Females irradiated with a dose of 50 Gy or more had almost no fecundity. When non-irradiated females were mated with irradiated males, egg hatch decreased exponentially with irradiation dose from 82.6% for the untreated control males to 4.0% for males irradiated with 120 Gy. Mortality of F1 individuals from the irradiated treatment also occurred during larval and pupal stages, with an egg to adult survival of 0.2%. However, descendants produced by the irradiated generation were fertile. These results are an encouraging first experimental step towards the development of the SIT for the management of D. suzukii populations.

Highlights

Drosophila suzukii Matsumura (Diptera: Drosophilidae) is an invasive pest of berries and stone fruits
The colony had been in culture for one year before being sent to the Insect Pest Control Laboratory (IPCL) of the Joint Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation (FAO)/International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Division of the Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture in Seibersdorf, Austria
320.4 ± 160.0 eggs were laid per week in control cages, while 275.8 ± 140.9 eggs were laid in cages containing ten irradiated males at any dose and ten non-irradiated females

Summary

Introduction

Drosophila suzukii Matsumura (Diptera: Drosophilidae) is an invasive pest of berries and stone fruits. It is a native from Southeast Asia and was first reported in North America (California) and Europe (Spain) in 2008 [1, 2]. Optimum irradiation dose for Drosophila suzukii l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l’Alimentation du Quebec (http://www.mapaq.gouv.qc.ca) and Agriculture and Agri-food Canada (http://agr.gc.ca). Travel costs have been financed with the Scholarship for short-term university studies outside of Quebec from the Ministère de l’Education et de l’Enseignement superieur The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

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