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

小企业创新研究（SBIR）项目的更广泛的影响/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。由于蚊子和其他昆虫对人类健康的影响和农业收入的损失，它们每年给世界经济造成的损失超过100 B美元。目前可用的控制措施既不有效，也不环保，也不适合广泛应用，也不符合实施成本效益。本项目旨在解决上述缺陷。目标是开发有效的昆虫控制方法，对环境的影响最小，实施起来具有成本效益，因此对商业化具有吸引力。该SBIR第一阶段项目建议开发一种用于控制埃及伊蚊的转基因不育雄性加速释放技术（SMART）。SMART蚊子的创新开发解决了蚊子控制中的几个问题，包括：雄性和雌性的分类，成年雄性的运输，费力的释放过程和不可扩展的操作。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，并在室温下在一个小容器中廉价运输。客户只需要添加水与供应的营养孵化的鸡蛋，从其中只有男性出现，放大雄性不育通过生产不育男性与每个生殖周期。该研究提案的范围仅限于通过靶向生殖系雄性不育在蚊子中创造合成遗传不相容性。关键技术目标是：1）优化蚊子中可编程转录激活因子的组分和2）将合成的遗传不相容性工程化到Ae的生殖系中。埃及人。该项目的预期成果将是最先进的智能蚊子，是有效的生物控制，是可扩展的和经济的实施。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

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.