Late-acting dominant lethal genetic systems and mosquito control

Table 1 Tetracycline-repressible lethality in LA513A.

Adults heterozygous for LA513A were allowed to mate with wild type. a and c: transgenic males crossed to wild type females; b, d: the reciprocal cross using transgenic females. Eggs were collected and the resulting larvae reared in media supplemented with tetracycline (Tc) to 30 μg/ml (crosses a and b) or in normal, tetracycline-free media (crosses c and d). Data are the sum of at least 5 experiments. The ratio of transgenic to non-transgenic first instar larvae (L1) was approximately 1:1 (1421:1384), indicating that there was no significant differential embryonic mortality between transgenic and wild type (binomial exact test,p = 0.248). The numbers of transgenic and non-transgenic first, second, third and fourth instar larvae (L1–L4), pupae and adults resulting from these eggs is shown. In the absence of tetracycline, the transgenics showed very high (96–97%) mortality between first instar larvae and adult stages (highlighted cells); this was completely suppressed by tetracycline. Mortality of transgenics in the absence of tetracycline is strongly stage-specific, being primarily around the pupal stage (L4-pupae and pupae-adult; most affected individuals started to pupate but failed to develop beyond the earliest stages of pupal development).

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