Manipulating sex determination pathways for pest control

操纵性别决定途径以控制害虫

• 批准号: 2869559
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of East Anglia
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2869559
• 关键词: Manipulating; sex; determination; pathways; pest

CRISPR/Cas9-based gene drives can introduce and spread genes and desirable traits into wild populations, offering a wide range of potential uses in insect pest control. For example, they can spread sterility and reduce agricultural pest populations in a targeted and environmentally friendly way. Gene drive technologies have often targeted highly basal elements of the sex determination pyramid to reduce the fitness of, or kill, females. More efficient and controllable technologies can be designed to manipulate higher-level regulators of sexual fate to effect complete sex conversion (female to male). These can potentially be deployed across a broad range of gene drive systems, to spread through a target population, causing a growing wave of sex ratio distortion, leading to rapid pest population reduction.This project will develop novel gene drives that utilise sex conversion as a population control measure by converting crop-damaging females into benign males. The model is a global agricultural pest, the medfly (Ceratitis capitata). The project aims to manipulate sex determination pathways in the medfly to effect population control through gene editing, a gene drive system in which males are converted into XX pseudomales. The designs produced will then be evaluated in tests and theory.

基于CRISPR/CAS9的基因驱动器可以将基因和理想的性状引入野生群体，从而在虫害控制中提供广泛的潜在用途。例如，它们可以以有针对性且环保的方式传播不育并减少农业害虫种群。基因驱动技术通常针对性别决定金字塔的高度基础元素，以减少女性的适应性或杀戮。可以设计更有效，更可控制的技术来操纵性命运的高级调节因子，以实现完全的性转换（女性对男性）。这些可能会在广泛的基因驱动系统中部署，以通过目标人群传播，从而导致性别比变形的不断增长，从而导致虫害迅速减少。该项目将开发新型的基因驱动器，将性别转化为一种。人群控制措施通过将损害作物的女性转化为良性雄性。该模型是一种全球农业害虫，即Medfly（Ceratitis Capitata）。该项目旨在操纵MEDFLE中的性别确定途径，以通过基因编辑（一种基因驱动系统，将雄性转化为XX假单胞菌）来实现人群控制。然后，生产的设计将在测试和理论中进行评估。