title: Pantropic retroviral vectors mediate somatic cell transformation and expression of foreign genes in dipteran insects.
abstract: The control of insects that transmit disease and damage crops has become increasingly difficult. The ability to genetically engineer insects would facilitate strategies to protect crops and block arthropod vector-borne disease transmission. Transformation vectors based on insect transposable elements have been developed, but most have limited host ranges. A promising alternative is the pantropic retroviral vector, which is packaged with the envelope glycoprotein from vesicular stomatitis virus and is replication-defective. We show here that pantropic murine retroviral vectors can mediate high-level expression of foreign genes in somatically transformed insect larvae and adults of three dipteran genera. This success demonstrates the potential for germline transformation mediated by pantropic retroviral vectors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of California, Riverside, USA.
authors.forename: T V
authors.initials: TV
authors.lastname: Jordan
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shike
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Boulo
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Cedeno
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: B S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jacobs-Lorena
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Higgs
authors.forename: K J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Fryxell
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Burns
mesh_terms: D000330:Aedes / Q000235:genetics; D000818:Animals; D000852:Anopheles / Q000235:genetics; D002461:Cell Line, Transformed; D004175:Diptera / Q000235:genetics* / Q000821:virology; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000196:embryology / Q000235:genetics / Q000821:virology; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D007814:Larva; D051379:Mice; D008845:Microinjections; D008979:Moloney murine leukemia virus / Q000235:genetics*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D014170:Transformation, Genetic; D001616:beta-Galactosidase / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D001616:beta-Galactosidase