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Pest Control in Modern Public Health
Published in Jerome Goddard, Public Health Entomology, 2022
Oxitec GMO mosquitoes Oxitec is a UK-based biotechnology company focused on using genetically modified insects to control insect populations across the globe.25 In partnership with the Bill and Melina Gates Foundation and a few agricultural companies, Oxitec researchers refined the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) for mosquito control, particularly using Aedes aegypti. Oxitec researchers engineered a self-limiting system using tTAV, a tetracycline-repressible transcriptional activator.26–28 The tTAV activator is controlled by presence of the antibiotic tetracycline, and when grown with tetracycline present, mosquitoes will not express tTAV, allowing for mosquito survival. However, in absence of tetracycline, tTAV is expressed, causing mosquito death due to toxicity.28 This is a “kill switch” of sorts. Additionally, this technology is female-specific. Genetically modified males carrying tTAV mate with wild females in nature, and female offspring die while male offspring carrying this gene survive to transmit it to the next generation.29
The Diseases – Malaria, Filariasis and Dengue
Published in Jacques Derek Charlwood, The Ecology of Malaria Vectors, 2019
Infected females, on the other hand, that mate with uninfected males produce healthy, infected offspring, as do infected males mating with infected females (thus, this increases the proportion of infected eggs laid in the population). This can be used against the mosquito in that large numbers of Wolbachia infected males can be released into an uninfected population (effectively mimicking a sterile insect technique [SIT]) and the population is suppressed. Such an approach was used in Brazil as a response to the Zika virus outbreak.
Source of Radiation Exposure in the Workplace: Nuclear, Medical and Industrial Sources
Published in Gaetano Licitra, Giovanni d'Amore, Mauro Magnoni, Physical Agents in the Environment and Workplace, 2018
This method, called the ‘sterile insect technique’ (IAEA, n.d. Sterile Insect Technique), is used worldwide against insect species of agricultural importance, such as the Mexican fruit fly and the Mediterranean fruit fly, and has been tested for the control of tsetse flies, mosquitoes, the melon fly, the oriental fruit fly, the onion fly and other important agricultural pests.
Impacts of ionization radiation on the cuticular hydrocarbon profile and mating success of male house crickets (Acheta domesticus)
Published in International Journal of Radiation Biology, 2021
Tamara M. Fuciarelli, C. David Rollo
Radiation can inflict damage through the direct ionization of biological molecules, including DNA, or indirectly through excess free radical production associated with the ionization of cellular water (Einor et al. 2016). A large amount of research has been conducted on radiation impacts to insect reproduction as it pertains to sterilization. This knowledge is largely associated with the use of the sterile insect technique (SIT), a method which uses radiation to sterilize males and reduce insect populations (Dyck et al. 2005). However, much less research has focused on the more subtle radiation impacts such as to sexual signaling, which may have a large effect on mating success and reproduction as a whole (Dyck et al. 2005).
Oxitec and MosquitoMate in the United States: lessons for the future of gene drive mosquito control
Published in Pathogens and Global Health, 2021
Cynthia E. Schairer, James Najera, Anthony A. James, Omar S. Akbari, Cinnamon S. Bloss
Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) is a long-used method for pest control that relies on the wide release of insects that have been rendered impotent, usually through radiation. SIT has been remarkably effective for other types of pests. For example, the screwworm (Cochliomyia hominivorax) has been effectively controlled in North America for decades using SIT [3]. In mosquitoes, SIT systems focus on creating sterile males because male mosquitoes do not feed on blood and therefore can be released. However, SIT has limited effectiveness in mosquitoes because irradiated males often struggle to mate, thus imposing a high fitness cost. Therefore, scientists have sought new ways to create sterile males.
Impact of paternal transmission of gamma radiation on reproduction, oogenesis, and spermatogenesis of the housefly, Musca domestica L. (Diptera: Muscidae)
Published in International Journal of Radiation Biology, 2021
There are many methodologies that serve as genetic control of dipterous flies including chemosterlization and sterile insect technique (SIT) (Knipling et al. 1968). Currently, SIT technique has acquired renewed attention especially in urban and periurban regions (Curtis 2002; Salem et al. 2014). Despite the intensive development of molecular mechanisms that may be used for inducing male sterility, irradiation techniques are still both the most cost effective and most efficient practical method for sterilization of insects (Catteruccia et al. 2009). In addition, radiation offers environmentally safe, nonpolluting, cheap, and reliable solutions alternative to chemical methods of insect control.