Gene drive and genetic sex conversion in the global agricultural pest Ceratitis capitata.

ABSTRACT: Homing-based gene drives are recently proposed interventions promising the area-wide, species-specific genetic control of harmful insect populations. Here we characterise a first set of gene drives in a tephritid agricultural pest species, the Mediterranean fruit fly Ceratitis capitata (medfly). Our results show that the medfly is highly amenable to homing-based gene drive strategies. By targeting the medfly transformer gene, we also demonstrate how CRISPR-Cas9 gene drive can be coupled to sex conversion, whereby genetic females are transformed into fertile and harmless XX males. Given this unique malleability of sex determination, we modelled gene drive interventions that couple sex conversion and female sterility and found that such approaches could be effective and tolerant of resistant

SUBMITTER: Meccariello A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10774415 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature