Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland ; University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
PLoS One. 2013 Sep 23;8(9):e76228. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0076228. eCollection 2013.
The release of genetically-modified or sterile male mosquitoes offers a promising form of mosquito-transmitted pathogen control, but the insights derived from our understanding of male mosquito behaviour have not fully been incorporated into the design of such genetic control or sterile-male release methods. The importance of aspects of male life history and mating behaviour for sterile-male release programmes were investigated by projecting a stage-structured matrix model over time. An elasticity analysis of transient dynamics during sterile-male releases was performed to provide insight on which vector control methods are likely to be most synergistic. The results suggest that high mating competitiveness and mortality costs of released males are required before the sterile-release method becomes ineffective. Additionally, if released males suffer a mortality cost, older males should be released due to their increased mating capacity. If released males are of a homogenous size and size-assortative mating occurs in nature, this can lead to an increase in the abundance of large females and reduce the efficacy of the population-suppression effort. At a high level of size-assortative mating, the disease transmission potential of the vector population increases due to male releases, arguing for the release of a heterogeneously-sized male population. The female population was most sensitive to perturbations of density-dependent components of larval mortality and female survivorship and fecundity. These findings suggest source reduction might be a particularly effective complement to mosquito control based on the sterile insect technique (SIT). In order for SIT to realize its potential as a key component of an integrated vector-management strategy to control mosquito-transmitted pathogens, programme design of sterile-male release programmes must account for the ecology, behaviour and life history of mosquitoes. The model used here takes a step in this direction and can easily be modified to investigate additional aspects of mosquito behaviour or species-specific ecology.
释放经过基因改造或不育的雄性蚊子为控制经蚊子传播的病原体提供了一种很有前途的方法，但我们对雄性蚊子行为的理解所带来的启示尚未完全纳入此类基因控制或不育雄蚊释放方法的设计中。通过随时间推移对具有阶段结构的矩阵模型进行预测，研究了雄性蚊子生活史和交配行为的各个方面对不育雄蚊释放计划的重要性。对不育雄蚊释放期间的瞬态动力学进行弹性分析，以深入了解哪些蚊虫控制方法可能最具协同作用。结果表明，在不育释放方法变得无效之前，需要释放的雄性具有高交配竞争力和较高的死亡成本。此外，如果释放的雄性死亡，由于其交配能力增加，应释放较老的雄性。如果释放的雄性大小均匀，并且自然界中存在大小趋同交配，这可能导致大型雌性数量增加，并降低种群抑制效果。在高度大小趋同交配的情况下，由于雄性释放，病媒种群的传播潜力增加，这就要求释放大小不均匀的雄性种群。在高密度依赖的幼虫死亡率和雌性存活率及生殖力的成分中，雌性种群对干扰最敏感。这些发现表明，与基于不育昆虫技术（SIT）的蚊虫控制相比，减少蚊虫来源可能是一种特别有效的蚊虫控制补充方法。为了使 SIT 能够发挥其作为控制经蚊子传播的病原体的综合蚊虫管理策略的关键组成部分的潜力，不育雄蚊释放计划的方案设计必须考虑到蚊子的生态、行为和生活史。此处使用的模型朝这个方向迈出了一步，可以轻松修改以研究蚊子行为或特定物种生态学的其他方面。
