Genetic Variation and Potential for Resistance Development to the tTA Overexpression Lethal System in Insects.

ABSTRACT: Release of insect pests carrying the dominant lethal tetracycline transactivator (tTA) overexpression system has been proposed as a means for population suppression. High levels of the tTA transcription factor are thought to be toxic due to either transcriptional squelching or interference with protein ubiquitination. Here we utilized the Drosophila melanogaster Genetic Reference Panel (DGRP) to examine the influence of genetic variation on the efficacy of a female-specific tTA overexpression system. The level of female lethality between DGRP lines varied from 11 to 97% with a broad sense heritability of 0.89. A genome-wide association analysis identified 192 allelic variants associated with high or low lethality (P < 10^-5), although none were significant when corr

SUBMITTER: Knudsen KE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7144068 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature