title: Female-specific insect lethality engineered using alternative splicing.
abstract: The Sterile Insect Technique is a species-specific and environmentally friendly method of pest control involving mass release of sterilized insects that reduce the wild population through infertile matings. Insects carrying a female-specific autocidal genetic system offer an attractive alternative to conventional sterilization methods while also eliminating females from the release population. We exploited sex-specific alternative splicing in insects to engineer female-specific autocidal genetic systems in the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata. These rely on the insertion of cassette exons from the C. capitata transformer gene into a heterologous tetracycline-repressible transactivator such that the transactivator transcript is disrupted in male splice variants but not in the female-specific one. As the key components of these systems function across a broad phylogenetic range, this strategy addresses the paucity of sex-specific expression systems (e.g., early-acting, female-specific promoters) in insects other than Drosophila melanogaster. The approach may have wide applicability for regulating gene expression in other organisms, particularly for combinatorial control with appropriate promoters.
authors.affiliation: Oxitec Limited, 71 Milton Park, Oxford OX14 4RX, UK.
authors.forename: Guoliang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Kirsty C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Condon
authors.forename: Matthew J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Epton
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.forename: George C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Condon
authors.forename: Neil I
authors.initials: NI
authors.lastname: Morrison
authors.forename: Tarig H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Dafa'alla
authors.forename: Luke
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Alphey
mesh_terms: D017398:Alternative Splicing; D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D033622:Ceratitis capitata / Q000235:genetics*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D005260:Female; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000187:drug effects; D007247:Infertility, Female / Q000235:genetics*; D007300:Insect Control / Q000379:methods*; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012737:Sex Factors; D013752:Tetracycline / Q000378:metabolism; D014158:Transcription, Genetic / Q000187:drug effects*
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; C097162:Tra protein, Drosophila; D013752:Tetracycline