Transgenic Insects

A transgenic organism is a living thing, such as a bacterium, plant or animal that has a foreign gene by gene technology.  There are many applications for GMOs in the industries of health and nutrition.  Scientists have developed a number of transgenic silkworms that the benefits of industrial and fibers that glow in the dark, for example, or silk produce human proteins.  A mosquito could soon be designed to be unable to carry a type of malaria parasite.  Field tests are underway to determine the safety of transgenic pink bollworm, designed to spread sterility to protect wild crops.  Most transgenic research is still in development, and it is now time to face the consequences of GMOs on the environment, crops and animals and human health.

Transforming Gene insects are done when one or more DNA sequences from other organisms is inserted in its genome.  The accepted method for producing transgenic insects is to splice the DNA that is inserted in a mobile element, also known as “jumping gene.”  A jumping gene is a segment of DNA that can be integrated into many different locations along a chromosome.  In our laboratory, using a mobile element called piggyBac, which was discovered by Malcolm Fraser of the University of Notre Dame.1

Interestingly, when the human genome has been sequenced end, many copies of a component in dormant bacteria, was found calledmariner.  Multiple copies of a shuttle called piggyBac considerations were also identified.  How many similar genes may be present not known because they are easy to identify and characterize the current theory, however, suggests that these jumping genes play a role in human evolution.

In agriculture for insects Design
The sterile insect technique (SIT) is designed to control pest populations.

The first application of new transgenic insect technology will probably be improved sterile insect technique (SIT).  SIT was developed by Edward F. Pinch Ling peaceful use of nuclear energy.  The method uses

* Mass breeding of insects
* Children exposed to harmful levels of radiation that cause sterility
* Published in areas infested swamp so that reproduction in wild animals

SIT involves the release of large numbers of transgenic insects.

SIT programs have been used for a variety of insects such as the Mediterranean fruit fly, Codling moth and pink bollworm.3-5 However, there are a number of obstacles to be overcome:

* Some insects can not be mass-reared.
* Mass production is sometimes added to the population figures are better, but at the expense of fitness.  (The option is an organism’s ability to adapt to the environment.)
* Currently, the technique involves the sterilization of insects to radiation, which further reduces their applicability.

The next step in controlling the pink bollworm is the creation of a transgenic insect that can be played with, and transfer of infertility, would insects.  How to breed transgenic sterile?  Insertion of a simple “conditional” gene eliminates susceptibility pink bollworm deadly side effects of radiation, under certain conditions.  Notch is the first conditional lethal gene discovery that allows the mass production of insects.  Our laboratory has shown that the Notch gene in Drosophila melanogaster, vinegar (fruit), Monitors, 1994.6 For some reason, the protein Notch operate at room temperature to help the developing embryo, but that interferes with embryonic development under ambient temperature and therefore conditional lethal.  By mixing a strain of Drosophila melanogaster has two copies of the notch transfer with the same number of wild types, which caused the collapse of the population in three generations.  When we tried to insert into the slot on the pink bollworm, however, we find the first major problem.  Genetic elements that work perfectly well in Drosophila, the fly, you do not work the same way or work at all distantly related insects, such as pink bollworm, a moth.  This process is still under development.

The problem with the fitness of transgenic insects
SIT can reduce the ability of insects.

* Laboratory of mosquito breeding naturally selected characteristics and behaviors that are incompatible with competition in nature, which is one of the dilemmas of the SIT approach.  Sometimes the laboratory strains crossed with wild strains to counteract the effects of inbreeding and lack of competition.
* The process of GMOs introduced another form of loss of fitness.  To introduce a new gene, even when inserted by the “natural” mechanism using mobile elements, the receiver is always low, in most cases fatally weak.  Among the hundreds of insertion events tested a few transgenic individuals are able to survive.  Fitness is the improvement of breeding with healthy populations, and then pure strains.