Mechanisms of sex determination and transmission ratio distortion in Aedes aegypti. Issue 1 (December 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hoang, Kim; Teo, Tze; Ho, Thien; Le, Vinh
• Is Part Of: Parasites & vectors. Volume 9:Issue 1(2016)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 13
• Publication Date: 2016-12
• Subjects: Aedes aegypti -- Sex determination -- Transformer-2 -- Meiotic drive -- Spermatogenesis -- Culicinae; Parasitism -- Periodicals; Parasites -- Periodicals; Vector-pathogen relationships -- Periodicals; Animals as carriers of disease -- Periodicals; Insects as carriers of disease -- Periodicals; 616.96
• DOI: 10.1186/s13071-016-1331-x
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1756-3305

Abstract

Abstract Background More effective mosquito control strategies are urgently required due to the increasing prevalence of insecticide resistance. The sterile insect technique (SIT) and the release of insects carrying a dominant lethal allele (RIDL) are two proposed methods for environmentally-friendly, species-targeted population control. These methods may be more suitable for developing countries if producers reduce the cost of rearing insects. The cost of control programs could be reduced by producing all-male mosquito populations to circumvent the isolation of females before release without reducing male mating competitiveness caused by transgenes. Results An RNAi construct targeting the RNA recognition motif of theAedes aegypti transformer-2 (tra-2 ) gene does not trigger female-to-male sex conversion as commonly observed among dipterous insects. Instead, homozygous insects show greater mortality among m-chromosome-bearing sperm and mm zygotes, yielding up to 100 % males in the subsequent generations. The performance of transgenic males was not significantly different to wild-type males in narrow-cage competitive mating experiments. Conclusion Our data provide preliminary evidence that the knockdown ofAe. aegypti tra-2 gene expression causes segregation distortion acting at the level of gametic function, which is reinforced by sex-specific zygotic lethality. This finding could promote the development of new synthetic sex distorter systems for the production of genetic sexing mosquito strains.