Proceedings of the XLV Italian Society of Agricultural Genetics - SIGA Annual Congress

Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy - 26/29 September, 2001

ISBN 88-900622-1-5

Oral Communication Abstract

INTEGRATING TRANSGENE TECHNOLOGY INTO STERILE INSECT TECHNIQUE (SIT): THE MEDFLY, CERATITIS CAPITATA AS A MODEL CASE FOR PRACTICAL APPLICATION AND RISK ASSESSMENT

MALACRIDA A.R., BONIZZONI M., GOMULSKI L.M., MURELLI V., TORTI C., GASPERI G.

Dipartmento di Biologia Animale, Università di Pavia

malacrid@unipv.it

Mediterranean fruitfly, transgenic lines, Sterile Insect Technique

The Mediterranean fruitfly, Ceratitis capitata is a key pest in many agricultural systems. It is highly polyphagous and causes damage to a very wide range of unrelated fruit and vegetable crops. An efficient and environmentally friendly approach to medfly control and eradication is the use of the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) (Hendrichs et al. 1995 J. Appl. Entomol. 119: 371). As only sterile males are required to induce sterility in the wild females, it is therefore desirable to develop genetic sexing strains that produce only males. The use of transgenic techniques in the development of genetic sexing strains may result in more rapid development and more efficient sexing systems for use in the SIT. Transgenic strains of the medfly, C. capitata have been developed using exogenous transposable elements (in: Handler A.M. & James A.A. eds. Insect Transgenesis: Methods and Applications, CRC Press, 2000), however the application of this technology requires prior risk assessment of their potential ecological impact for safe introduction into the environment. We are developing technologies to trace and monitor the stability of introduced sterile transgenic flies in the environment as a prerequsite for their safe use. The combination of useful transgenic strains and a technology, such as the SIT provides a workable environment in which important questions relating to the use of transgenic insects in general can be asked and partially answered.