Contraception for pests
A new CRISPR-based technology has been developed to combat insect pests
Using the CRISPR gene editing tool, scientists from the University of California at San Diego and the University of California at Berkeley (USA) have developed a method for changing key genes - pgSIT – which controls the determination of sex and fertility of insects, according to a press release from UC San Diego New CRISPR–based Technology Developed to Control Pests with Precision-guided Genetics.
The new method makes it possible to sterilize male insects to suppress the population of agricultural pests and pathogenic mosquitoes. A description of the new technology is given in the journal Nature Communications (Kandul et al., Transforming insect population control with precision guided sterile males with demonstration in flies).
The new method is called pgSIT, otherwise – "precision-guided sterile insect technique" (precision-guided sterile insect technique). It has been developed for the last year and a half for the fruit fly Drosophila. The method uses CRISPR gene editing technology, which "turns off" the genes that control the viability of the female and male, as well as fertility (the ability to reproduce healthy offspring) in insect pests. As a result of genome editing, an absolutely sterile male offspring is born: the method works with 100 percent efficiency. The researchers are confident that the technology can be applied to a range of insects, including disease-spreading mosquitoes.
The system assumes that scientists genetically modify the eggs of the main pest species, which are then sent to their distribution sites. According to the researchers, after the eggs are placed in places of infection, newborn sterile males will mate with females in the wild and will not be able to produce offspring, which will lead to a reduction in the population.
PgSIT tightly "closes the doors" for future generations of harmful insects. "The method is an environmentally safe and proven technology," the researchers note in the article. Scientists hope to adapt the method tested on fruit flies for the yellow-boredom mosquito (Aedes aegypti), a carrier of dengue fever, chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika virus.
Researchers in the field of agriculture have been trying to breed offspring of sterile male insects since the 1930s. For example, in the United States, a method was introduced that involved irradiating males of pests such as the American tropical blowfly (Cochliomyia hominivorax, the New World screw-worm fly), which consumes animal meat and causes significant damage to livestock. Similar methods were later used in Mexico and Central America.
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