Gifts that keep on giving: maternal effects and insect pest control

成功的早期胚胎发育是在胚胎和母体基因组的影响之间达到精确平衡的结果。人们对关键害虫的这一过程知之甚少，这对于有效地对付严重的农业害虫特别重要，如粉虱(Certis Captita)。这是一种极端的多面手，他的幼虫可以在350多种不同的寄主水果上茁壮成长，其中许多水果具有全球经济重要性。了解母体和胚胎对该物种发育的影响的机制和平衡对于揭示多面性害虫的基本特征和提供新的种群抑制工具至关重要。该项目是与世界领先的基因技术开发研究中心皮尔布赖特研究所的合作。该项目旨在识别和操纵蚂蚁母亲在蚂蚁卵中沉积的RNA。这将揭示这些RNA在该物种异常广泛的饮食成功中的基础作用，并提供通过改进基因编辑来提高下一代基因驱动效率的巨大潜力。

Successful early embryonic development occurs as a result of a precise balance between the effects of both embryonic and maternal genomes. Very little of this process is known in key insect pests and it is of particular importance for effectively tackling serious agricultural pests such as the medfly (Ceratitis captita). This is an extreme generalist whose larvae can thrive in over 350 different host fruits, many of which are of global economic importance. Understanding the mechanisms and balance of maternal vs embryonic effects on development in this species is crucially important to reveal fundamental characteristics of generalist insect pests and to deliver new tools for population suppression.The project is a collaboration with the Pirbright Institute, a world-leading research centre for the development of genetic technologies. The project aims to identify and manipulate RNAs deposited in eggs by mothers in the medfly. This will reveal the fundamental role of these RNAs in the unusually wide dietary success of this species and offer significant potential to increase the efficiency of next generation genes drives through improvements to gene editing.