BATCH PRODUCTION OF NON-TRANSGENIC, MALE-ONLY SPOTTED WING DROSOPHILA FOR BIOCONTROL.

The goal of this proposal is to evaluate the production oftransgene-free sex-sorted males of spotted wing drosophila (SWD) meant for sterile insect technique and evaluate parameters for the ideal deployment of the technology.1. Implement a Subtractive Transgene Sex Sorting system in SWD to produce transgene-free sex-sorted males.Two SWD strains will be engineered to carry a repressible lethal construct in the X or Y chromosomes. One strain will carry the construct in the X-chromosome and another strain will carry it in the Y-chromosome. After making the strains homozygous for the transgene under permissive conditions, staged breeding will be carried outunder non-permissive conditions to create sex-sorted non-transgenic males.2. Create a computational simulation model for SWD population control.An agent-based model will be created to simulate the efficacy of using the sex-sorted males forsterile insect control, and its comparison with other competing approaches for the control of SWD. This model will simulate the efficacy of each approach with varying degrees of fitness, and additional risk to fruit farming due to off-target effects. Finally, the model will simulate different environmental factors along with migration to provide a more realistic outcome.