SBIR Phase I: Development of genetically modified sterile male mosquito for biocontrol

这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是开发安全有效、无毒的昆虫和其他入侵生物生物防治技术。由于蚊子和其他昆虫对人类健康的影响和对农业收入的损失，它们每年给世界经济造成的损失超过100亿美元。现有的控制措施既不有效、环境友好、可扩展、无法广泛应用，实施起来也不具有成本效益。本项目旨在解决上述不足。目标是发展有效、对环境影响最小、实施成本效益高、因而具有商业化吸引力的昆虫防治方法。本项目旨在开发一种控制埃及伊蚊的转基因雄性不育加速释放技术（SMART）。SMART蚊的创新开发，解决了蚊控工作中雌雄分选、雄蚊运输、释放过程繁琐、不可规模化操作等问题。SMART方法要求鸡蛋可以在一个集中的设施中生产，在室温下储存直到需要时，并在室温下以低廉的价格在一个小容器中运输。顾客只需要加水和提供的营养物来孵化卵，卵中只出雄性，通过在每个繁殖周期中产生不育的雄性来增强雄性不育性。该研究计划的范围仅限于通过瞄准生殖系雄性不育，在蚊子中制造合成遗传不亲和性。关键的技术目标是：1)优化蚊子可编程转录激活因子的组成；2)工程合成的遗传不亲和性进入伊蚊种系。蚊。该项目的预期结果将是最先进的SMART蚊子，这种蚊子在生物防治方面有效，可扩展且经济。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project is the development of safe and effective, toxin-free biocontrol of insects and other invasive organisms. Mosquitoes and other insects cost upwards of $10 B/year to the world economy due to their impact on human health and revenue losses to agriculture. Current control measures available are neither effective, environmentally friendly, scalable for widespread application, nor cost effective to implement. This project aims to address the above deficiencies. The goal is to develop insect control methods that are effective, have minimal environmental impact and are cost effective to implement and hence attractive to commercialization. This SBIR Phase I project proposes to develop a genetically modified sterile male accelerated release technique (SMART) for Aedes aegypti mosquito control. The innovative development of SMART mosquitoes solves several issues in mosquito control, including: sorting of males and females, transportation of adult males, laborious release processes, and non-scalable operation. The SMART approach requires eggs that can be produced at a centralized facility, stored at room temperature until needed, and inexpensively shipped at room temperature in a small container. Customers need only add water with supplied nutrients to hatch the eggs, from which only males emerge that amplify male sterility by producing sterile males with each reproduction cycle. The scope of the research proposal is limited to creating synthetic genetic incompatibility in mosquitoes by targeting germline male sterility. The key technical objectives are to: 1) optimize components of programmable transcriptional activators in mosquitoes and 2) engineer synthetic genetic incompatibility into germline of Ae. aegypti. The anticipated outcome of this project will be state-of-the-art SMART mosquitos that are effective at biocontrol that is scalable and economical to implement.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.