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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2021.06.11.448100

Genetically engineered insects with sex-selection and genetic incompatibility enable population suppression

Upadhyay, A.·Feltman, N.·Sychla, A.·Das, S.·Maselko, M.·Smanski, M.
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Abstract

Engineered Genetic Incompatibility (EGI) is a method to create species-like barriers to sexual reproduction. It has applications in pest control that mimic Sterile Insect Technique when only EGI males are released. This can be facilitated by introducing conditional female-lethality to EGI strains to generate a sex-sorting incompatible male system (SSIMS). Here we demonstrate a proof of concept by combining tetracycline-controlled female lethality constructs with a pyramus-targeting EGI line in the model insect Drosophila melanogaster. We show that both functions (incompatibility and sex-sorting) are robustly maintained in the SSIMS line and that this approach is effective for population suppression in cage experiments. Further we show that SSIMS males remain competitive with wild-type males for reproduction with wild-type females, including at the level of sperm competition.

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Upadhyay, A., Feltman, N., Sychla, A., Das, S., Maselko, M., Smanski, M.. 2021-06-11. Genetically engineered insects with sex-selection and genetic incompatibility enable population suppression. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.11.448100

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