Scholarly Literature
This is a database of scholarly literature that concentrates currently on natural and engineered selfish genetic elements (gene drives). The latest are shown here.
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Modelling the effect of migration on the localisation and spread of a gene drive
Tags: Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Modeling, Population modification/replacement, Population suppression, Self limiting, Self sustainingC. Benjamin James and F.-L. Alexandre Jules Hen, bioRxiv, 2023.04.02.535303. 2023.
Gene drives have the potential to address pressing ecological issues. Through the super-Mendelian inheritance of a gene drive, a trait can be spread through a population even in spite of a fitness cost. This ability to spread is both its greatest quality and detractor. We may not ...
The Effect of the Sterile Insect Technique on Vibrational Communication: The Case of Bagrada hilaris (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae)
Tags: Biological control, Sterile insect technique (SIT)C. Peccerillo, C. E. Mainardi, R. Nieri, J. M. Fouani, A. Cemmi, M. Cristofaro, G. Anfora and V. Mazzoni, Insects, 14. 2023.
The painted bug, Bagrada hilaris, is an agricultural pest in its original areas (Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East), and it has recently been recorded as an invasive species in southwestern part of the US, Chile, Mexico, and two islands in the Mediterranean basin. Its ...
Gamma-radiation of Glossina palpalis gambiensis revisited: effect on fertility and mating competitiveness
Tags: Genetic biocontrol, Other arthropods, Sterile insect technique (SIT)S. Pagabeleguem, O. Koughuindida, E. W. Salou, G. Gimonneau, A. I. Toé, B. A. Kaboré, K. S. M. Dera, H. Maïga, A. M. G. Belem, G. M. S. Sanou/Ouédraogo, M. J. Vreysen and J. Bouyer, Parasite, 30:8. 2023.
African animal trypanosomoses are vector-borne diseases that cause enormous livestock losses in sub-Saharan Africa, with drastic socio-economic impacts. Vector control in the context of an area-wide integrated pest management program with a sterile insect technique component ...
Improved Quality Management of the Indian Meal Moth, Plodia interpunctella (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) for Enhanced Efficacy of the Sterile Insect Technique
Tags: Genetic biocontrol, Sterile insect technique (SIT)M. M. Hasan, M. A. Hossain and C. G. Athanassiou, Insects, 14. 2023.
The sterile insect technique (SIT) is considered an environmentally friendly, autocidal control tactic to manage insect pests. This work dealt with the improvement of quality management of the Indian meal moth Plodia interpunctella (Hübner) for enhanced efficacy of the SIT. The ...
Additive Effect of Releasing Sterile Insects Plus Biocontrol Agents against Fruit Fly Pests (Diptera: Tephritidae) under Confined Conditions
Tags: Biological control, Fruit fly, Sterile insect technique (SIT)P. Montoya, E. Flores-Sarmiento, P. López, A. Ayala and J. Cancino, Insects, 14. 2023.
Pest control models integrating the use of the sterile insect technique (SIT) and augmentative biological control (ABC) have postulated that it is possible to obtain a synergistic effect from the joint use of these technologies. This synergistic effect is attributed to the ...
One strain may hide another: Cryptic male-killing Wolbachia
Tags: Cytoplasmic incompatibility, WolbachiaE. A. Hornett and G. D. D. Hurst, PLOS Biology, 21:e3002076. 2023.
While heritable symbionts are common in insects, strains that act as male-killers are considered rare. This Primer explores a new study in PLOS Biology which reveals a novel male-killer hidden by co-infection and host resistance, highlighting the complexity of host-microbial ...
Differences in gene expression in field populations of Wolbachia-infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes with varying release histories in northern Australia
B. Wimalasiri-Yapa, B. Huang, P. A. Ross, A. A. Hoffmann, S. A. Ritchie, F. D. Frentiu, D. Warrilow and A. F. van den Hurk, PLoS Negl Trop Dis, 17:e0011222. 2023.Aedes aegypti is the principal mosquito vector of dengue, yellow fever, Zika and chikungunya viruses. The wMel strain of the endosymbiotic bacteria Wolbachia pipientis was introduced into the vector as a novel biocontrol strategy to stop transmission of these viruses. Mosquitoes ...
The Promise and Challenge of Genetic Biocontrol Approaches for Malaria Elimination
Tags: Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Genetic biocontrol, Malaria, Population modification/replacement, Population suppressionS. James and M. Santos, Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease, 2023.
Malaria remains an ongoing public health challenge, with over 600,000 deaths in 2021, of which approximately 96% occurred in Africa. Despite concerted efforts, the goal of global malaria elimination has stalled in recent years. This has resulted in widespread calls for new ...
Paternity Analyses for the Planning of SIT Projects against the Red Palm Weevil
Tags: Sterile insect technique (SIT)S. Belvedere, S. Arnone, M. Cristofaro, A. La Marca and A. De Biase, Insects, 14. 2023.
The red palm weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus is an invasive pest from southeastern Asia and Melanesia that has spread widely across the Middle East and the Mediterranean Basin over the last 30 years. Its endophagous larvae cause huge amounts of damage to several palm tree ...
The Wolbachia WalE1 effector alters Drosophila endocytosis
Tags: Cytoplasmic incompatibility, Fruit fly, WolbachiaM. Martin and I. L. G. Newton, bioRxiv, 2023.
The most common intracellular bacterial infection is Wolbachia pipientis , a microbe that manipulates host reproduction and is used in control of insect vectors. Phenotypes induced by Wolbachia have been studied for decades and range from sperm-egg incompatibility to male ...
Modelling Emergence of Wolbachia Toxin-Antidote Protein Functions with an Evolutionary Algorithm
Tags: Cytoplasmic incompatibility, Modeling, Toxin-antidote, WolbachiaJ. Beckmann, J. Gillespie and D. Tauritz, bioRxiv, 2023.
Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) simulate Darwinian evolution and adeptly mimic natural evolution. Most EA applications in biology encode high levels of abstraction in top-down ecological population models. In contrast, our research merges protein alignment algorithms from ...
A male-killing Wolbachia endosymbiont is concealed by another endosymbiont and a nuclear suppressor
Tags: Cytoplasmic incompatibility, Fruit fly, Other Symbionts, WolbachiaK. M. Richardson, P. A. Ross, B. S. Cooper, W. R. Conner, T. Schmidt and A. A. Hoffmann, PLoS Biol, 21:e3001879. 2023.
Bacteria that live inside the cells of insect hosts (endosymbionts) can alter the reproduction of their hosts, including the killing of male offspring (male killing, MK). MK has only been described in a few insects, but this may reflect challenges in detecting MK rather than its ...
Vector competence of sterile male Glossina fuscipes fuscipes for Trypanosoma brucei brucei: implications for the implementation of the sterile insect technique in a sleeping sickness focus in Chad
Tags: Genetic biocontrol, Other arthropods, Sterile insect technique (SIT)M. H. Mahamat, A. Ségard, J.-B. Rayaisse, R. Argiles-Herrero, A. G. Parker, P. Solano, A. M. M. Abd-Alla, J. Bouyer and S. Ravel, Parasites and Vectors, 16:111. 2023.
Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) is a neglected tropical disease caused by Trypanosoma brucei gambiense transmitted by tsetse flies in sub‑Saharan West Africa. In southern Chad the most active and persistent focus is the Mandoul focus, with 98% of the reported human cases, ...
Identification and functional analysis of Cochliomyia hominivorax U6 gene promoters
Tags: CRISPR, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Sterile insect technique (SIT)R. Novas, T. Basika, M. E. Williamson, P. Fresia, A. Menchaca and M. J. Scott, Insect Molecular Biology, 2023.
The New World screwworm, Cochliomyia hominivorax, is an obligate parasite, which is a major pest of livestock. While the sterile insect technique was used very successfully to eradicate C. hominivorax from North and Central America, more cost-effective genetic methods will likely ...
Convergent Aedes and Drosophila CidB interactomes suggest cytoplasmic incompatibility targets are conserved
Tags: Cytoplasmic incompatibility, Toxin-antidote, WolbachiaS. O. Oladipupo, J. D. Carroll and J. F. Beckmann, Insect Biochem Mol Biol, 103931. 2023.
Wolbachia-mediated cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) is a conditional embryonic lethality induced when Wolbachia-modified sperm fertilizes an uninfected egg. The Wolbachia proteins, CidA and CidB control CI. CidA is a rescue factor that reverses lethality. CidA binds to CidB. CidB ...
Enhancing the scalability of Wolbachia-based vector-borne disease management: time and temperature limits for storage and transport of Wolbachia-infected Aedes aegypti eggs for field releases
Tags: Aedes, Genetic biocontrol, Population modification/replacement, WolbachiaM. J. Allman, Y. H. Lin, D. A. Joubert, J. Addley-Cook, M. C. Mejía-Torres, C. P. Simmons, H. A. Flores and J. E. Fraser, Parasit Vectors, 16:108. 2023.
BACKGROUND: Introgression of the bacterial endosymbiont Wolbachia into Aedes aegypti populations is a biocontrol approach being used to reduce arbovirus transmission. This requires mass release of Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes. While releases have been conducted using a variety ...
Functional analysis of Wolbachia Cid effectors unravels cooperative interactions to target host chromatin during replication
Tags: Cytoplasmic incompatibility, WolbachiaK. Terretaz, B. Horard, M. Weill, B. Loppin and F. Landmann, PLOS Pathogens, 19:e1011211. 2023.
Wolbachia are common bacteria among terrestrial arthropods. These endosymbionts transmitted through the female germline manipulate their host reproduction through several mechanisms whose most prevalent form called Cytoplasmic Incompatibility -CI- is a conditional sterility ...
The sex pheromone heptacosane enhances the mating competitiveness of sterile Aedes aegypti males
Tags: Aedes, Sterile insect technique (SIT)L.-M. Wang, N. Li, M. Zhang, Q. Tang, H.-Z. Lu, Q.-Y. Zhou, J.-X. Niu, L. Xiao, Z.-Y. Peng, C. Zhang, M. Liu, D.-Q. Wang and S.-Q. Deng, Parasites and Vectors, 16:102. 2023.
Aedes aegypti is a vector that transmits various viral diseases, including dengue and Zika. The radiation-based sterile insect technique (SIT) has a limited effect on mosquito control because of the difficulty in irradiating males without reducing their mating competitiveness. In ...
RNA interference is essential to modulating the pathogenesis of mosquito-borne viruses in the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti
Tags: Aedes, Genetic biocontrol, MosquitoesG. H. Samuel, T. Pohlenz, Y. Dong, N. Coskun, Z. N. Adelman, G. Dimopoulos and K. M. Myles, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120:e2213701120. 2023.
While it has long been known that the transmission of mosquito-borne viruses depends on the establishment of persistent and nonlethal infections in the invertebrate host, specific roles for the insects? antiviral immune pathways in modulating the pathogenesis of viral infections ...
Distinct Wolbachia localization patterns in oocytes of diverse host species reveal multiple strategies of maternal transmission
Tags: Fruit fly, WolbachiaY. A. Radousky, M. T. J. Hague, S. Fowler, E. Paneru, A. Codina, C. Rugamas, G. Hartzog, B. S. Cooper and W. Sullivan, Genetics, 2023.
A broad array of endosymbionts radiate through host populations via vertical transmission, yet much remains unknown concerning the cellular basis, diversity and routes underlying this transmission strategy. Here we address these issues, by examining the cellular distributions of ...

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