Department for Environment Constructions and Design, Vector Ecology Unit, Institute of Microbiology, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, Via Flora Ruchat-Roncati 15, Mendrisio 6850, Switzerland.
Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas, Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Nikolaou Plastira 100, Crete, Heraklion GR-70013, Greece.
Acta Trop. 2024 Aug;256:107271. doi: 10.1016/j.actatropica.2024.107271. Epub 2024 May 23.
The application of the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) to mosquito control is based on the systematic release of large numbers of adult males that have been previously sterilized by irradiation. Ionizing radiation doses inducing full sterility also cause somatic damages that reduce the capacity of the treated males to compete with wild males. The optimal dose inducing high levels of male sterility and minimal impact on competitiveness can be assessed by establishing a dose-response curve. Sub-sterile males are, to a variable degree, still fertile and might be able to transmit to the progeny and following generation(s) sub-lethal random mutations resulting from irradiation. To investigate this, we treated Ae. albopictus male pupae with a sub-sterilizing (2-4 % of egg hatching) dose of gamma rays and explored expressed mutated genes in treated males and their progeny using RNA-seq. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were called using two independent pipelines. Only SNPs common to both pipelines (less than 5 % of the total SNPs predicted) were considered reliable and were annotated to genes. Over 600 genes with mutations likely induced by irradiation were found in the treated Ae. albopictus males. A part of the genes found mutated in irradiated males were also found in (and therefore probably passed on to) males of the F1 and F2 progeny, indicating that genetic variations induced by irradiation may be transmitted along generations. The mutated genes in irradiated males did not seem to significantly affect biological processes, except in one case (i.e., oxidative phosphorylation). Only in four cases (i.e., oxidative phosphorylation, UDP-glucose metabolic process, proton transmembrane transport and riboflavin metabolism) we found biological processes to be significantly affected by mutated genes that were likely transmitted to the male progeny. Our results suggest that random mutations induced by a sub-sterilizing dose of gamma ray in Ae. albopictus male pupae and transmitted to the male progeny of the irradiated mosquitoes do not affect biological processes potentially harmful, from a public-health point of view.
利用不育昆虫技术（SIT）控制蚊子，是基于系统地释放大量经过辐照绝育的成年雄性蚊子。电离辐射剂量会导致完全不育，同时也会对雄性造成躯体损伤，降低其与野生雄性竞争的能力。通过建立剂量-反应曲线，可以评估诱导高雄性不育水平和最小竞争力影响的最佳剂量。亚不育雄性在一定程度上仍然具有生育能力，并且可能能够将辐照产生的亚致死随机突变传递给后代和后续世代。为了研究这一点，我们用亚致死剂量（导致 2-4%的卵孵化）的γ射线处理白纹伊蚊雄性蛹，并使用 RNA-seq 探索处理雄性及其后代中表达的突变基因。使用两个独立的管道来呼叫单核苷酸多态性（SNP）。只有两个管道都有的 SNP（少于预测的总 SNP 的 5%）被认为是可靠的，并被注释到基因上。在处理过的白纹伊蚊雄性中发现了 600 多个可能由辐照诱导的突变基因。在辐照雄性中发现的部分突变基因也存在于（并因此可能传递给）F1 和 F2 后代的雄性中，这表明辐照诱导的遗传变异可能会传递给后代。辐照雄性中的突变基因似乎并没有显著影响生物过程，除了在一个案例中（即氧化磷酸化）。我们只在四个案例（即氧化磷酸化、UDP-葡萄糖代谢过程、质子跨膜转运和核黄素代谢）中发现了可能传递给雄性后代的突变基因显著影响的生物过程。我们的结果表明，在白纹伊蚊雄性蛹中用亚致死剂量的γ射线诱导的随机突变，并传递给受辐照蚊子的雄性后代，不会影响从公共卫生角度来看潜在有害的生物过程。
