NC State Scientists Develop Genetic Control Mechanism for Major Livestock Pest

Scientists at North Carolina State University developed a technique to manage populations of Australian sheep blowfly, a major livestock pest in Australia and New Zealand. Dr. Max Scott and team genetically engineered lines of female Australia sheep blowflies that require doses of a common antibiotic, tetracycline, to survive. Female blowflies that did not get the antibiotic died before reaching adulthood. Several genetically modified lines lacking tetracycline showed 100 percent female fatality.

The genetically engineered larvae with tetracycline lethality genes had crimson colors because they also overexpressed the fluorescent marker gene. This enables the researchers to identify which larvae will be females and which will be males. Since the females will die in the absence of tetracycline in their diets, the males can be separated out in the larval stage. This is important for a "male-only" genetic control program to decrease blowfly populations, because fertile males would pass the lethality construct on to female offspring, which would die in the absence of tetracycline.

Read more at http://news.ncsu.edu/releases/genetic-control-sheep-blowlfy/.