eprintid: 2069
rev_number: 8
eprint_status: archive
userid: 326
dir: disk0/00/00/20/69
datestamp: 2016-12-05 03:08:54
lastmod: 2016-12-05 03:08:54
status_changed: 2016-12-05 03:08:54
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Hoang, Phuc
creators_name: Teo, Tze Min
creators_name: Ho, Thien Xuan
creators_name: Vinh, Le Sy
creators_id: kimhpoxford@gmail.com
creators_id: vinhls@vnu.edu.vn
title: Mechanisms of sex determination and transmission ratio distortion in Aedes aegypti
ispublished: pub
subjects: IT
subjects: isi
divisions: fac_fit
abstract: Background: More effective mosquito control strategies are urgently required due to the increasing prevalence of
insecticide resistance. The sterile insect technique (SIT) and the release of insects carrying a dominant lethal allele
(RIDL) are two proposed methods for environmentally-friendly, species-targeted population control. These methods
may be more suitable for developing countries if producers reduce the cost of rearing insects. The cost of control
programs could be reduced by producing all-male mosquito populations to circumvent the isolation of females
before release without reducing male mating competitiveness caused by transgenes.
Results: An RNAi construct targeting the RNA recognition motif of the Aedes aegypti transformer-2 (tra-2) gene does
not trigger female-to-male sex conversion as commonly observed among dipterous insects. Instead, homozygous
insects show greater mortality among m-chromosome-bearing sperm and mm zygotes, yielding up to 100 % males
in the subsequent generations. The performance of transgenic males was not significantly different to wild-type
males in narrow-cage competitive mating experiments.
Conclusion: Our data provide preliminary evidence that the knockdown of Ae. aegypti tra-2 gene expression causes
segregation distortion acting at the level of gametic function, which is reinforced by sex-specific zygotic lethality.
This finding could promote the development of new synthetic sex distorter systems for the production of genetic
sexing mosquito strains.
Keywords: Aedes aegypti, Sex determination, Transformer-2, Meiotic drive, Spermatogenesis, Culicinae
date: 2016
date_type: published
publisher: BioMed
full_text_status: none
publication: Parasites & Vectors
volume: 9
number: 49
refereed: TRUE
issn: 1756-3305
citation:   Hoang, Phuc and Teo, Tze Min and Ho, Thien Xuan and Vinh, Le Sy  (2016) Mechanisms of sex determination and transmission ratio distortion in Aedes aegypti.  Parasites & Vectors, 9  (49).    ISSN 1756-3305