Manipulating sex determination pathways for pest control

基于CRISPR/Cas9的基因驱动可以将基因和期望的性状引入并传播到野生种群中，在昆虫害虫控制中提供广泛的潜在用途。例如，它们可以传播不育性，并以有针对性和环境友好的方式减少农业害虫种群。基因驱动技术经常针对性别决定金字塔的高度基础元素，以减少或杀死女性。可以设计更有效和更可控的技术来操纵性命运的更高水平的调节器，以实现完全的性别转换（女性到男性）。这些技术有可能被广泛应用于基因驱动系统，在目标种群中传播，导致性别比例扭曲，从而迅速减少害虫种群。该项目将开发新型基因驱动，通过将对作物有害的雌性转化为良性雄性，利用性别转换作为种群控制措施。该模型是一种全球性的农业害虫，地中海实蝇（Ceratitis capitata）。该项目旨在操纵地中海果蝇的性别决定途径，通过基因编辑实现种群控制，基因编辑是一种基因驱动系统，其中雄性被转化为XX假单胞菌。然后将在测试和理论中评估所产生的设计。

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.