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The Sterile Insect Technique can efficiently reduce the reproduction of the spotted wing drosophila (Drosophila suzukii) in strawberry

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B. Gard, A. Panel, A. Labbetoul, N. Bosshard, A. Xuereb, B. Cariou, A. Debelle, C. Oliva, S. Fellous,  bioRxiv,  2023.
The spotted wing drosophila (SWD) Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae) is a highly problematic pest in soft fruit crops. Since its introduction in Europe in 2008, no satisfying nor environment-friendly control method has emerged against this species. The sterile insect ...

Population suppression with dominant female-lethal alleles is boosted by homing gene drive

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Jinyu Zhu, Jingheng Chen, Yiran Liu, Xuejiao Xu, Jackson Champer,  bioRxiv,  2023.
Methods to suppress pest insect populations using genetic constructs and repeated releases of male homozygotes have recently been shown to be an attractive alternative to older sterile insect technique based on radiation. Female-specific lethal alleles have substantially ...

The effect of migration on transmission of Wolbachia in Nilaparvata lugens

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Zhigang Liu, Tiejun Zhou,  Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering,  20. 2023.
Brown planthopper Nilaparvata lugens, which can transmit rice ragged stunt virus, is a serious and damaging pest to rice plants. Rice plants can protect themselves from the associated diseases of N.lugens by either suppressing or replacing N.lugens by releasing N.lugens infected ...

Viruses that ‘infect’ viruses: Cas12f1 and Cas9 gene drive in HSV1

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Hongsheng Dai, Qiaorui Yao, Zhuangjie Lin, Keyuan Lai, Xianyin Zeng, Guangxiong Lei, Tongwen Zhang,  bioRxiv,  2023.
Cas9-based synthetic gene drives constitute some minimal elements capable of editing DNA with sequence specificity. However, they face high resistance rate and mitigation strategies developed so far are difficult to implement. Here, we engineered herpes simplex virus type 1 ...

A population modification gene drive targeting both Saglin and Lipophorin impairs Plasmodium transmission in Anopheles mosquitoes

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Emily I Green, Etienne Jaouen, Dennis Klug, Roenick Proveti Olmo, Amandine Gautier, Stéphanie Blandin, Eric Marois,  eLife,  12. 2023.
Lipophorin is an essential, highly expressed lipid transport protein that is secreted and circulates in insect hemolymph. We hijacked the Anopheles coluzzii Lipophorin gene to make it co-express a single-chain version of antibody 2A10, which binds sporozoites of the malaria ...

Homing-based gene drives can introgress rapidly into local genetic backgrounds with minimal chromosomal conversion in Anopheles gambiae

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Tony Nolan, Poppy Pescod, Giulia Bevivino et al.,  Research Square,  2023.
CRISPR-Cas9 gene drive control strategies use a homing selfish genetic element which induces a double-stranded break at the target site and is copied into the opposing chromosome, breaking an essential gene and ensuring super-Mendelian inheritance. During the copying process SNPs ...

Germline transformation of the West Nile Virus and avian malaria vector Culex quinquefasciatus Say using the piggyBac transposon system

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Katherine Nevard, Rajdeep Kaur, Tim Harvey-Samuel,  bioRxiv,  2023.
Culex quinquefasciatus Say is a mosquito which acts as a vector for numerous diseases including West Nile Virus, lymphatic filariasis and avian malaria, over a broad geographical range. As the effectiveness of insecticidal mosquito control methods declines, the need has grown to ...

A homing rescue gene drive with multiplexed gRNAs reaches high frequency in cage populations but generates functional resistance

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Jingheng Chen, Shibo Hou, Ruobing Feng, Xuejiao Xu, Nan Liang, Jackson Champer,  bioRxiv,  2023.
CRISPR homing gene drive is a potent technology with considerable potential for managing populations of medically and agriculturally significant insects. It induces a bias in the inheritance of the drive allele in progeny, rapidly spreading desired genes throughout the ...

Reduced dengue incidence following city-wide wMel Wolbachia mosquito releases throughout three Colombian cities: Interrupted time series analysis and a prospective case-control study

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Velez ID, Tanamas SK, Arbelaez MP, Kutcher SC, Duque SL, Uribe A, et al.,  PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases,  2023.
The introduction of Wolbachia (wMel strain) into Aedes aegypti mosquitoes reduces their capacity to transmit dengue and other arboviruses. Randomised and non-randomised studies in multiple countries have shown significant reductions in dengue incidence following field ...

Large-scale releases and establishment of wMel Wolbachia in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes throughout the Cities of Bello, Medellín and Itagüí, Colombia

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Velez ID, Uribe A, Barajas J, Uribe S, Ángel S, Suaza-Vasco JD, et al.,  PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases,  2023.
The wMel strain of Wolbachia has been successfully introduced into Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and has been shown to reduce the transmission of dengue and other Aedes-borne viruses. Here we report the entomological results from phased, large-scale releases ...

Meeting Abstracts from the 5th B Chromosome Conference

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Anonymous,  BMC Proceedings,  17. 2023.
During preparations for the 5th B-Chromosome Conference (5BCC), rapid and significant progress was observed in the germ-restricted chromosomes (GRCs) study. GRCs are additional chromosomes found only in germ cells and are eliminated from somatic cells in many avian and dipteran ...

Modelling and analysis of periodic impulsive releases of the Nilaparvata lugens infected with wStri-Wolbachia

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Xiangjun Dai, Qi Quan and Jianjun Jiao,  Journal of Biological Dynamics,  17:1. 2023.
In this paper, we formulate a population suppression model and a population replacement model with periodic impulsive releases of Nilaparvata lugens infected with wStri. The conditions for the stability of wild-N.lugens -eradication periodic solution of two systems are obtained ...

Food for thought: Assessing the consumer welfare impacts of deploying irreversible, landscape-scale biotechnologies

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Michael S. Jones, Zachary S. Brown,  Food Policy,  121. 2023.
Genetically engineered insects have gained attention as regionally deployed pest control technologies, with substantial applications in agriculture for combatting intractable crop pests and diseases. One potential tool is a ‘gene drive’, using CRISPR-based gene editing. In ...

Manipulating the Destiny of Wild Populations Using CRISPR

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Raban R, Marshall JM, Hay BA, Akbari OS.,  Annual Reviews,  57:361-390. 2023.
Genetic biocontrol aims to suppress or modify populations of species to protect public health, agriculture, and biodiversity. Advancements in genome engineering technologies have fueled a surge in research in this field, with one gene editing technology, CRISPR, leading the ...

Wolbachia Transinfection Via Embryonic Microinjection

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Zhang, M., Xi, Z.,  Methods in Molecular Biology,  2739. 2023.
The process of transferring Wolbachia from one species to another to establish a stable, maternally inherited infection in the target species is known as transinfection. The success of transinfection is primarily achieved through embryonic microinjection, which is the most direct ...

Efficient sex separation by exploiting differential alternative splicing of a dominant marker in Aedes aegypti

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Shih-Che Weng, Igor Antoshechkin, Eric Marois, Omar S. Akbari,  PLoS Genetics,  2023.
Only female mosquitoes consume blood giving them the opportunity to transmit deadly human pathogens. Therefore, it is critical to remove females before conducting releases for genetic biocontrol interventions. Here we describe a robust sex-sorting approach termed SEPARATOR ...

Effects of different diets on Aedes aegypti adults: improving rearing techniques for sterile insect technique

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Aynoanne Leandro Barbosa , Glayciane Costa Gois , Verenna Barros dos Santos , Aline Taiane de Macedo Pinto , Bianca Pires de Castro Andrade , Lucas Barbosa de Souza , Fernanda Hohana Almeida e Sá , Jair Fernandes Virginio and Mário Adriano Ávila Queiroz,  Bulletin of Entomological Research,  2023.
The aim was to evaluate the effect of different energy diets available in adulthood on the longevity, dispersal capacity and sexual performance of Aedes aegypti produced under a mass-rearing system. To evaluate the effects of diets in relation to the survival of the adult male ...

Utility of surveillance data for planning for dengue elimination in Yogyakarta, Indonesia: a scenario-tree modelling approach

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Melanie Bannister-Tyrrell, Alison Hillman, Citra Indrian, Riris Andono Ahmad, Adi Utarini, Cameron P Simmons, Katherine L Anders, Evan Sergeant,  BMJ Global Health,  8. 2023.
Field trials and modelling studies suggest that elimination of dengue transmission may be possible through widespread release of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes infected with the insect bacterium Wolbachia pipientis (wMel strain), in conjunction with routine dengue control activities. ...

Engineering mice for female-biased progeny without impacting genetic integrity and litter size

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Ido Yosef, Tridib Mahata, Yuhuang Chen, Hadas Bar-Joseph, Ruth Shalgi, Ariel Munitz, Motti Gerlic, Udi Qimron,  bioRxiv,  2023.
Generating mammalian gametes with a skewed sex ratio has thus far eluded empirical confirmation. The utilization of such genetically engineered organisms would offer the potential to curtail the necessity for culling animals of undesirable sex, mitigate resource wastage, and ...

Gene drives for the extinction of wild metapopulations

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Jason W. Olejarz, Martin A. Nowak,  Journal of Theoretical Biology,  2023.
Population-suppressing gene drives may be capable of extinguishing wild populations, with proposed applications in conservation, agriculture, and public health. However, unintended and potentially disastrous consequences of release of drive-engineered individuals are extremely ...

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