Nature Biotechnology
23, 453 - 456 (2005)
Published online: 6 March 2005; | doi:10.1038/nbt1071
A dominant lethal genetic system for autocidal control of the Mediterranean fruitflyPeng Gong1, Matthew J Epton1, Guoliang Fu2, Sarah Scaife2, Alexandra Hiscox1, Kirsty C Condon2, George C Condon2, Neil I Morrison1, 2, David W Kelly1, 2, 3, Tarig Dafa'alla2, Paul G Coleman2, 3
& Luke Alphey1, 21
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK. 2
Oxitec Limited, 71 Milton Park, Oxford OX14 4RX, UK. 3
Department of Infectious & Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London WC1E 7HT, UK.
Correspondence should be addressed to Luke Alphey luke.alphey@zoo.ox.ac.ukThe Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) used to control insect pests relies on the release of large numbers of radiation-sterilized insects. Irradiation can have a negative impact on the subsequent performance of the released insects1,
2,
3,
4 and therefore on the cost and effectiveness of a control program5. This and other problems associated with current SIT programs could be overcome by the use of recombinant DNA methods and molecular genetics6,
7,
8,
9,
10,
11,
12. Here we describe the construction of strains of the Mediterranean fruit fly (medfly) harboring a tetracycline-repressible transactivator (tTA) that causes lethality in early developmental stages of the heterozygous progeny but has little effect on the survival of the parental transgenic tTA insects. We show that these properties should prove advantageous for the implementation of insect pest control programs.
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