The spotted-wing drosophila is a threat to fruit growers across the US and Europe. Crispr could thwart the pest’s numbers.
“If you release enough males over a long enough period of time, you can eliminate the pest,” says Omar Akbari, a professor of cell and developmental biology at the University of California, San Diego, whoUsing sterilization as a way to control insect pests isn’t a new idea. Since the 1950s, the US government has, parasitic flies that feed on the flesh of livestock. Sterilized male screwworms are released to mate with females, which lay eggs that don’t hatch.
Meanwhile, researchers at North Carolina State University are developing an alternative control method that wouldn’t require repeated releases. In the lab, they used a technique called a gene drive to make female offspring unable to reproduce. Gene drives are designed to preferentially spread or “drive” certain genetic traits throughout a population, overruling the rules of heredity.
When the flies matured, the researchers mated the engineered insects with wild ones that didn’t have the mutated doublesex gene. Normally, about 50 percent of offspring would be expected to inherit the change. But with the gene drive, 94 to 99 percent of the flies’ offspring ended up with it. Females that inherited the mutated gene were sterile and unable to lay eggs. But male offspring, which also carry the change, remain fertile.
“If we're trying to do population control, you really want to target a gene that's required for female reproduction, because it's the female that is producing the next generation,” Scott says. The researchers used mathematical modeling to predict how well the gene drive system would suppress populations of flies kept in laboratory cages, and found that releasing one modified fly for every four wild ones could tank populations within eight to 10 generations. Now the team is conducting experiments using cages of real gene-edited flies to learn whether the gene drive will suppress their numbers as the modeling predicts., but none of these insects have been released yet in the wild.
Deutschland Neuesten Nachrichten, Deutschland Schlagzeilen
Similar News:Sie können auch ähnliche Nachrichten wie diese lesen, die wir aus anderen Nachrichtenquellen gesammelt haben.
Scientists reworked an experimental cancer therapy to treat autoimmune diseaseThe experimental cancer treatment was reworked, using RNA engineering, to address an autoimmune disorder called myasthenia gravis.
Weiterlesen »
Warming causes more extreme rain, not snow, over mountains and scientists say that's a problemA new study says climate change is turning major snowfalls into more extreme rain over mountains, somehow worsening both dangerous flooding like the type that devastated Pakistan last year and long-term water shortages
Weiterlesen »
How scientists used cellphone data to measure Dallas’ resilience after 2021 winter stormUsing cell phone data from D-FW residents, SMU researchers show that Dallas bounced back quickly from the 2021 winter storm. Their model predicts that Dallas...
Weiterlesen »
Scientists isolate human gene able to fend off most bird flu virusesUK researchers have homed in on a human gene implicated in thwarting most bird flu viruses from infecting people.
Weiterlesen »
Computer, Enhance: Scientists Reconstruct Rooms From Eye ReflectionsA team from the University of Maryland are trying to make some of CSI's wildest enhancement tools a reality.
Weiterlesen »
Scientists Astounded When Two Stars Collide in Brain Melting ExplosionAstronomers have observed a whole new mechanism by which stars can die — by smashing into each other in the most explosive fashion.
Weiterlesen »