Yale University, 21 Sachem Street, New Haven, CT, 06520-8105, USA.
Departamento de Parasitologia, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas, Universidade de São Paulo, Av. Prof. Lineu Prestes, 1374, São Paulo, SP, 05508-000, Brazil.
Sci Rep. 2019 Sep 10;9(1):13047. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-49660-6.
In an attempt to control the mosquito-borne diseases yellow fever, dengue, chikungunya, and Zika fevers, a strain of transgenically modified Aedes aegypti mosquitoes containing a dominant lethal gene has been developed by a commercial company, Oxitec Ltd. If lethality is complete, releasing this strain should only reduce population size and not affect the genetics of the target populations. Approximately 450 thousand males of this strain were released each week for 27 months in Jacobina, Bahia, Brazil. We genotyped the release strain and the target Jacobina population before releases began for >21,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Genetic sampling from the target population six, 12, and 27-30 months after releases commenced provides clear evidence that portions of the transgenic strain genome have been incorporated into the target population. Evidently, rare viable hybrid offspring between the release strain and the Jacobina population are sufficiently robust to be able to reproduce in nature. The release strain was developed using a strain originally from Cuba, then outcrossed to a Mexican population. Thus, Jacobina Ae. aegypti are now a mix of three populations. It is unclear how this may affect disease transmission or affect other efforts to control these dangerous vectors. These results highlight the importance of having in place a genetic monitoring program during such releases to detect un-anticipated outcomes.
为了控制蚊媒疾病（如黄热病、登革热、基孔肯雅热和寨卡热），一家名为 Oxitec Ltd 的商业公司开发了一种携带显性致死基因的转基因埃及伊蚊品系。如果致死率完全，释放这种品系只会减少种群数量，而不会影响目标种群的遗传结构。在巴西巴伊亚州的雅各宾纳，每周大约有 45 万只这种品系的雄性蚊子被释放，持续了 27 个月。在释放开始之前，我们对释放的品系和目标雅各宾纳种群进行了超过 21000 个单核苷酸多态性（SNP）的基因型分析。释放开始后 6、12 和 27-30 个月对目标种群进行的遗传抽样，提供了明确的证据表明，部分转基因品系的基因组已被整合到目标种群中。显然，释放的品系和雅各宾纳种群之间罕见的存活杂种后代具有足够的生命力，能够在自然界中繁殖。该释放品系是使用最初来自古巴的品系开发的，然后与墨西哥种群进行了杂交。因此，雅各宾纳埃及伊蚊现在是三个种群的混合体。目前尚不清楚这将如何影响疾病传播，或影响其他控制这些危险病媒的努力。这些结果强调了在进行此类释放时建立遗传监测计划的重要性，以检测意外结果。
