scholarly journals Polyandrous Mexican Fruit Flies: Second Male Paternity and Biological Attributes of Transgenic Strains

Insects ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
Betzabé Verónica-Murrieta ◽  
José Salvador Meza ◽  
Martha Lucía Baena ◽  
Gerardo Alvarado-Castillo ◽  
Diana Pérez-Staples

Anastrepha ludens (Diptera: Tephritidae), is a damaging agricultural pest. Currently, the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) is used as part of its control. The SIT consists of the mass-rearing, sterilization, and release of insects in target areas. Sterile males mate with wild females, and prevent them from laying fertile eggs. However, even if females mate with sterile males, they can then remate with a second male. If this second male is wild, then this could reduce the efficiency of the SIT by producing viable offspring. The amount of progeny produced by second males (P2 values) for A. ludens is unknown. Here, we evaluated the biological attributes, mating competitiveness, and the proportion of male paternity gained by the second male, using strains that carry fluorescent marker genes and can be potentially used to develop transgenic sexing strains. Furthermore, the transgenic strains were irradiated, to test their ability to induce sterility in females. We found that the 443-G strain had significantly higher larval survival than the 419-R strain. No significant difference was found between the two strains in their mating probability with wild females. We found P2 values between 67 and 74% for the 419-R and the 443-G strain, respectively. Second male sperm precedence only decreased slightly after 12 days, suggesting that sperm from the first and second male is not mixing with time, but rather the second male’s sperm prevails. Furthermore, sterile 443-G males induced significantly higher sterility in females than sterile males from the 419-R strain. The apparent lower ability of the 443-G strain to inhibit female remating should be further investigated. Knowledge of the pre and postcopulatory performance of transgenic strains will help in understanding their potential for control.

2020 ◽  
Vol 113 (5) ◽  
pp. 2163-2170
Author(s):  
Yair Contreras-Navarro ◽  
Diana Pérez-Staples ◽  
Dina Orozco-Dávila ◽  
Francisco Díaz-Fleischer

Abstract Anastrepha ludens (Loew) (Diptera: Tephritidae) is an endemic pest of Mexico, attacking several fruits of economic importance. The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), consisting of mass-rearing, irradiation and release of adults, is used to control this pest in affected areas. Currently, a genetic sexing strain (Tapachula 7, Tap-7) consisting only of A. ludens males is being released, yet we lack information on its sexual performance at the early ages when they are released and on its post copulatory behavior in terms of sperm transfer and mating inhibition. Here, sexual competitiveness at young ages and ability to inhibit female re-mating was compared between sterile Tap-7, Standard Bisexual (SB), or wild males both in laboratory and field cage conditions. Sperm stored by females mating with wild, Tap-7, or SB strain males was also compared. Six-day-old sterile Tap-7 males had low mating rates, however, by 7 d of age 80% of males had mated. Tap-7 males were just as likely as wild males to inhibit wild female re-mating. In field cages, sterile Tap-7 males mated faster than wild and sterile males from the SB strain and had comparable mating success to wild males. Females mated to sterile Tap-7 males stored more sperm than those mated to sterile SB males. Females mated to wild males stored more sperm than females mated to any other type of male. Mass-rearing had a greater effect on decreasing sperm stored by females than irradiation. We recommend continuing the release of the GSS strain of A. ludens.


2013 ◽  
Vol 104 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Rao ◽  
S. Aguilar-Argüello ◽  
P. Montoya ◽  
F. Díaz-Fleischer

AbstractFruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) are major pests worldwide. The sterile insect technique, where millions of flies are reared, sterilized by irradiation and then released, is one of the most successful and ecologically friendly methods of controlling populations of these pests. The mating behaviour of irradiated and non-irradiated flies has been compared in earlier studies, but there has been little attention paid to the anti-predator behaviour of mass-reared flies, especially with respect to wild flies. Tephritid flies perform a supination display to their jumping spider predators in order to deter attacks. In this study, we evaluated the possibility of using this display to determine the anti-predator capabilities of mass-reared irradiated, non-irradiated flies, and wild flies. We used an arena setup and observed bouts between jumping spiders (Phidippus audax Hentz) and male Mexican fruit flies (Anastrepha ludens Loew). We show that although all flies performed a supination display to their predator, wild flies were more likely to perform a display and were significantly more successful in avoiding attack than mass-reared flies. We suggest that this interaction can be used to develop a rapid realistic method of quality control in evaluating anti-predator abilities of mass-reared fruit flies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shihao Zhao ◽  
Feng Wang ◽  
Qiuping Zhang ◽  
Jiayi Zou ◽  
Zhangshu Xie ◽  
...  

AbstractMost of the cotton bollworm-resistant genes applied in cotton are more than 20 years and they all belong to Cry1Ab/c family, but the insect-resistant effects of Cry5Aa on cotton were rarely reported. The possible risk of resistance is increasing. The study synthesized a novel bollworm-resistant gene Cry5Aa artificially based on preferences of cotton codon. The new gene was transferred to cotton through the method of pollen tube pathway. The transgenic strains were identified by kanamycin test in field and laboratory PCR analysis. Meanwhile, an insect resistance test was conducted by artificial bollworm feeding with transgenic leaves and GK19 was used as a control in this study. Results showed that rate of positive transgenic strains with kanamycin resistance in the first generation (T1), the second generation (T2) and the third generation (T3) respectively were 7.76%, 73.1% and 95.5%. However, PCR analysis showed that the positive strain rate in T1, T2 and T3 were 2.35%, 55.8% and 94.5%, respectively. The resistant assay of cotton bollworm showed that the mortality rate of the second, third and fourth instar larva feed by the transgenic cotton leaves, were 85.42%, 73.35% and 62.79%, respectively. There was a significant difference between transgenic plant of Cry5Aa and GK19 in insect resistance. Finally, we also conducted the further analysis of gene expression patterns, gene flow and the effect on non-target pest in the study. The results showed that Cry5Aa gene had less environmental impact, and Cry5Aa has been transferred successfully and expressed stably in cotton. Therefore, the novel bollworm resistance gene can partially replace the current insect-resistance gene of Lepidoptera insects.


Author(s):  
José Arredondo ◽  
Juan F. Aguirre‐Medina ◽  
José S. Meza ◽  
Jorge Cancino ◽  
Francisco Díaz‐Fleischer

1985 ◽  
Vol 63 (7) ◽  
pp. 1647-1651 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin A. Pierce ◽  
Nalin Sikand

Acid tolerance in wood frog (Rana sylvatica) embryos and larvae was examined in full- and half-sib families. Among the embryos, no significant difference in acid tolerance at pH 3.75 was observed among the progeny of males. At pH 4 only slight differences in embryo acid tolerance existed among the progeny of males mated to the same female. Thus, there is relatively little direct genetic variation in embryo acid tolerance. However, progeny from different females differed significantly in their acid tolerance at both pH 4 and pH 3.75, indicating that maternal factors are important in embryo acid tolerance. Whether these maternal factors are genetic is not known. Among larvae, maternal factors did not appear to influence acid tolerance, but significant genetic variation was present. Larval survival in an acidic solution was not correlated with embryo acid tolerance.


Author(s):  
G I González-López ◽  
E Solís-Echeverría ◽  
F Díaz-Fleischer ◽  
D Pérez-Staples

Abstract Anastrepha ludens (Loew) is one of the most important pests of citrus and mango crops in Mexico. A method used to control this pest is the sterile insect technique, which consists in the mass production, irradiation, and release of insects in affected areas. The production of insects begins with the establishment of colonies to produce eggs, which must be highly fertile to ensure an adequate production of larvae. However, female fecundity and fertility can be affected by adult density and sex ratio, thus an optimal sex ratio in mass-rearing cages must be used. The genetic sexing strain of A. ludens (Tapachula-7) allows the identification of the sex at the pupal stage, making it possible to establish rearing cages with different sex ratios. We determined if different sex ratios have an effect on egg production. Two sex ratios (4♀: 1♂ and 1♀: 1♂) were compared. Fecundity, fertility and survival at different ages were also determined. Higher fertility and fecundity per female were observed at a ratio of 4:1. However, females with higher fecundity had reduced survival probabilities. In conclusion, maintaining colonies with a lower proportion of males in cages ensures a greater fecundity and fertility. Further research is necessary to understand whether results can be attributed to lower male harassment in cages.


1996 ◽  
Vol 128 (6) ◽  
pp. 1225-1237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin M. Heinz

AbstractVarious biological parameters of Liriomyza trifolii (Burgess) were investigated to maximize mass-rearing efficiency of this insect. Average percentage emergence from a cohort of uniformly aged pupae was 90.0% of which 37.0% were males. A significant difference in the among-day emergence sequences from a pupal cohort was detected with 77.5% of all females and 80.1% of all males emerging during the first 2 days of the emergence sequence. Adults emerging on day 3 within the emergence sequence lived significantly longer than did flies emerging on the other days within the sequence. Male flies lived an average of 9.9 days or 33.1% less than the 14.8-day average for female flies. Cage size was also found to influence adult longevity significantly with the greatest average longevity (20 days for females and 12 days for males) occurring in 385.6-cm3 cages. Emergence time within an emergence sequence and the physical size of an experimental unit are two previously experimentally undocumented sources of variation influencing longevity of Liriomyza. A significant nonlinear relationship between the number of flies leaving the rearing cages (as a result of normal rearing procedures) and the daily number of pupal L. trifolii added to each cage was detected. From these biological parameters, a birth and death rate simulation model was developed to predict adult population sizes of L. trifolii within a mass-rearing program. The gender-specific simulation model consisted of adult emergence (quantified in terms of the adult emergence sequence from a known number of pupae entered into each rearing culture), and adult death rate (quantified in terms of the survivorship of adults within the culture and the number of adults escaping from the culture). The adult population sizes predicted by the simulation model were not significantly different from the average population sizes observed from the rearing cages in validation studies utilizing normal mass-rearing practices. Use of this model should reduce the effort expended on maintaining host populations for commercial mass-production of natural enemies of L. trifolii.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Nahida Sultana ◽  
Mahfuza Khan ◽  
Md. Rezaul Karim ◽  
Nazma Khatun

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