Location: Tropical Pest Genetics and Molecular Biology Research Unit
Project Number: 2040-22430-028-017-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement
Start Date: Jul 1, 2019
End Date: Oct 30, 2022
Objective:
Develop non-transgenic genetic sexing strains in pest tephritid species to expand the application of SIT in this important pest species group.
Approach:
Characterization of mutations conferring white pupae and temperature sensitive lethal in medfly genetic sexing strains, as well as characterization of the exact translocation breakpoint between the Y chromosome and the 5th autosome in the males of the Veinna-8 strain that confers these traits to be female specific. From that develop CRISPR-based methods to recreate the translocation in wild type lines, and demonstrate a targeted gene editing approach to re-creating temperature sensitive lethal in Anastrepha or Bactrocera species.
