Sinkins, S. P. and Godfray, H. C. J. (2004) Use of Wolbachia to drive nuclear transgenes through insect populations. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences, 271(1546), pp. 1421-1426. (doi: 10.1098/rspb.2004.2740) (PMID:15306342) (PMCID:PMC1691734)
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Abstract
Wolbachia is an inherited intracellular bacterium found in many insects of medical and economic importance. The ability of many strains to spread through populations using cytoplasmic incompatibility, involving sperm modification and rescue, provides a powerful mechanism for driving beneficial transgenes through insect populations, if such transgenes could be inserted into and expressed by Wolbachia. However, manipulating Wolbachia in this way has not yet been achieved. Here, we demonstrate theoretically an alternative mechanism whereby nuclear rather than cytoplasmic transgenes could be driven through populations, by linkage to a nuclear gene able to rescue modified sperm. The spread of a 'nuclear rescue construct' occurs as long as the Wolbachia show imperfect maternal transmission under natural conditions and/or imperfect rescue of modified sperm. The mechanism is most efficient when the target population is already infected with Wolbachia at high frequency, whether naturally or by the sequential release of Wolbachia-infected individuals and subsequently the nuclear rescue construct. The results provide a potentially powerful addition to the few insect transgene drive mechanisms that are available.
Item Type: | Articles |
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Additional Information: | The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Wellcome Trust and NERC. |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: | Sinkins, Professor Steven |
Authors: | Sinkins, S. P., and Godfray, H. C. J. |
College/School: | College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Infection & Immunity College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Infection & Immunity > Centre for Virus Research |
Journal Name: | Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences |
Publisher: | The Royal Society |
ISSN: | 0962-8452 |
ISSN (Online): | 1471-2954 |
Published Online: | 14 May 2004 |
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