Transgenic insects: Techniques and applications
Abstract
Insect transgenesis promises improvements in agriculture, pharmaceuticals and public health. Many important insects can now be routinely transformed with effectors that have useful applications. Agriculture presents the largest market for transgenic insects and has a foundational history of success with sterile insect technique for control of pests including Mediterranean fruit flies and screwworms. Biotechnology will contribute superior markers, suppressible sterility and sex-conversion. Public health is also seeing transgenic mosquitoes developed which suppress natural populations and are incapable of transmitting disease. Experts in the field will contribute their insights into the latest technology and its applications. Authors will also consider the larger risks, social and economic aspects of transgenic insects whose value must be proven in political, regulatory and public acceptance arenas.
... Thus, preserving wild-type microbiota in F 1 progeny could be an avenue for studying mosquito-microbe dynamics in the field. Maternal egg-smearing has been proposed as a mechanism through which adult female mosquitoes and other insects transfer microbes to their progeny [55][56][57][58]. This transfer of microbes from mother to offspring via eggsmearing could explain the heterogeneity observed in internal and cuticle surface microbiota between F 1 larvae with different maternal origins. ...
Background
Research on mosquito-microbe interactions may lead to new tools for mosquito and mosquito-borne disease control. To date, such research has largely utilized laboratory-reared mosquitoes that typically lack the microbial diversity of wild populations. A logical progression in this area involves working under controlled settings using field-collected mosquitoes or, in most cases, their progeny. Thus, an understanding of how laboratory colonization affects the assemblage of mosquito microbiota would aid in advancing mosquito microbiome studies and their applications beyond laboratory settings.
Methods
Using high throughput 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, the internal and cuticle surface microbiota of F1 progeny of wild-caught adult Anopheles albimanus from four locations in Guatemala were characterized. A total of 132 late instar larvae and 135 2–5 day-old, non-blood-fed virgin adult females that were reared under identical laboratory conditions, were pooled (3 individuals/pool) and analysed.
Results
Results showed location-associated heterogeneity in both F1 larval internal (p = 0.001; pseudo-F = 9.53) and cuticle surface (p = 0.001; pseudo-F = 8.51) microbiota, and only F1 adult cuticle surface (p = 0.001; pseudo-F = 4.5) microbiota, with a more homogenous adult internal microbiota (p = 0.12; pseudo-F = 1.6) across collection sites. Overall, ASVs assigned to Leucobacter, Thorsellia, Chryseobacterium and uncharacterized Enterobacteriaceae, dominated F1 larval internal microbiota, while Acidovorax, Paucibacter, and uncharacterized Comamonadaceae, dominated the larval cuticle surface. F1 adults comprised a less diverse microbiota compared to larvae, with ASVs assigned to the genus Asaia dominating both internal and cuticle surface microbiota, and constituting at least 70% of taxa in each microbial niche.
Conclusions
These results suggest that location-specific heterogeneity in filed mosquito microbiota can be transferred to F1 progeny under normal laboratory conditions, but this may not last beyond the F1 larval stage without adjustments to maintain field-derived microbiota. These findings provide the first comprehensive characterization of laboratory-colonized F1An. albimanus progeny from field-derived mothers. This provides a background for studying how parentage and environmental conditions differentially or concomitantly affect mosquito microbiome composition, and how this can be exploited in advancing mosquito microbiome studies and their applications beyond laboratory settings.
... DNA into a living cell), electroporation (an electrical treatment applied to cells that induces transient pores through which exogenous genetic material can pass into cells), and biolistics technologies (where tiny metal pellets are accelerated to deliver the genetic material into the cell) have the potential to work on genetic engineering of many agriculturally essential insects (Atkinson and James, 2002). In Agriculture, many of the insects such as Mediterranean fruit flies have been successfully controlled by using such techniques (Benedict, 2014). The ability to genetically engineered insects other than D. ...
... Maternal egg-smearing has been proposed as a mechanism through which adult female mosquitoes and other insects transfer microbes to their progeny (42)(43)(44)(45). This egg-smearing could explain the location-driven heterogeneity observed in both internal and cuticle surface microbiota of larval progeny in this study, since laboratory progeny were generated by forced oviposition using blood-fed and/or gravid adult female mosquitoes collected from different field sites. ...
Background: Research on mosquito-microbe interactions may lead to new tools for mosquito and mosquito-borne disease control. To date, such research has largely utilized laboratory-reared mosquitoes that typically lack the microbial diversity of wild populations. A logical progression in this area involves working under controlled settings using field-collected mosquitoes or, in most cases, their progeny. Thus, an understanding of how laboratory colonization affects the assemblage of mosquito microbiota would aid in advancing mosquito microbiome studies and their applications beyond laboratory settings.
Methods: Using high throughput 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, we characterized the internal and cuticle surface microbiota of F1 progeny of wild-caught adult Anopheles albimanus from four locations in Guatemala. A total of 132 late instar larvae and 135 2-5day old, non-blood-fed virgin adult females that were reared under identical laboratory conditions, were pooled (3 individuals/pool) and analyzed.
Results: Results showed geographical heterogeneity in both F1 larval internal (p=0.001; pseudo-F = 9.53) and cuticle surface (p=0.001; pseudo-F = 8.51) microbiota, and only F1 adult cuticle surface (p=0.001; pseudo-F = 4.5) microbiota, with a more homogenous adult internal microbiota (p=0.12; pseudo-F = 1.6) across collection sites. Overall, ASVs assigned to Leucobacter, Thorsellia, Chryseobacterium and uncharacterized Enterobacteriaceae, dominated F1 larval internal microbiota, while Acidovorax, Paucibacter, and uncharacterized Comamonadaceae, dominated the larval cuticle surface. F1 adults comprised a less diverse microbiota compared to larvae, with ASVs assigned to the genus Asaia dominating both internal and cuticle surface microbiota, and constituting at least 70% of taxa in each microbial niche.
Conclusions: These results suggest that location-specific heterogeneity in filed mosquito microbiota can be transferred to F1 progeny under normal laboratory conditions, but this may not last beyond the F1 larval stage without adjustments to maintain field-derived microbiota. Our findings provide the first comprehensive characterization of laboratory-colonized F1 An. albimanus progeny from field-derived mothers. This provides a background for studying how parentage and environmental conditions differentially or concomitantly affect mosquito microbiome composition, and how this can be exploited in advancing mosquito microbiome studies and their applications beyond laboratory settings.
The challenging issue of animal welfare has focused mainly on furred and feathered vertebrates. However, unnoticed by most people, literally billions of insects are kept in captivity, in increasing numbers, and traded for a great variety of purposes. Arguably the most successful animals on Earth, insects are ignored or actively disliked by most people. Not just the different appreciation of insects by humans but the diversity of insects, and the diversity of their ecosystem services, shows that a discussion of insect welfare requires different criteria than vertebrate welfare. Their biology is very different, and insects are far less tolerant of suboptimal conditions. As a result, successful insect breeding programmes must necessarily fulfil basic welfare requirements. Insect natural history illustrates the complexity of practical welfare, even without fundamental consideration of insects as animals that have intrinsic value and their own agency, and the extent to which they are conscious or not and may or may not suffer pain. The great variety of insect lifestyles and lack of accessible information about industrial breeding mean that it is impossible to set general standards for insect welfare or provide meaningful evaluations of current practices. The best guidance that can be offered is to ‘keep insects under as natural conditions as possible’. However, even this cannot be adhered to. Conditions in live butterfly exhibits involve compromises. Insects released in billions as biocontrol agents often involve x-ray sterilisation or transgenic procedures and pose environmental risks. For insects bred for human food and animal feed, euthanasia is a pressing issue. Numerous questions and ethical and welfare dilemmas are raised. Despite this, formulation of an Insect Welfare Charter based on respect, and the need to pay more attention to insects, is encouraged, preferably also addressing insects living in the wild.
Les céréales sont à la base de l’alimentation camerounaise et sont les produits alimentaires les plus
importés. Ces importations sont indispensables pour pallier aux déficits alimentaires en céréales et aux famines
périodiques. Ce déficit en céréales s’explique entre autres par des pertes post-récolte dues aux insectes
ravageurs dont Sitophilus et Tribolium sont les genres majeurs. Les céréaliculteurs Camerounais utilisent
majoritairement des plantes insectifuges/insecticides et des insecticides chimiques pour lutter contre les
insectes ravageurs des stocks. Plusieurs plantes utilisées sont méconnues et par conséquent il n’y a pas de
données sur leur toxicité. Certains insecticides entraînent des pollutions de l’environnement et des
empoisonnements; de plus, la plupart des ravageurs majeurs ont développé des résistances aux insecticides
utilisés contre eux. Face à ces difficultés, des insectes transgéniques et mutants pourraient être des outils
supplémentaires pour lutter contre les insectes ravageurs des céréales stockées en préservant l’environnement
et la santé. La compréhension de la biologie de ces insectes permettra de mieux les combattre. Cet article de
synthèse fait le point sur les insectes impliqués dans la destruction des stocks de céréales au Cameroun, les
moyens de lutte utilisés et la possibilité de recourir aux insectes transgéniques/mutants comme un moyen de
lutte complémentaire.
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