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Disruption of duplicated yellow genes in Bactrocera tryoni modifies pigmentation colouration and impacts behaviour

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Abstract

Irradiated Queensland fruit flies (Bactrocera tryoni) used in Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) programmes are marked with fluorescent dyes to distinguish them from wild flies when recaptured in monitoring traps. However, coating sterile pupae with powdered dyes can reduce emergence rates and fly quality and can sometimes produce insufficiently certain discrimination through inadequate coating or because the dye is transferred to wild flies through contact. Here we created a phenotypically distinct B. tryoni strain that lacks typical melanisation patterns through CRISPR/Cas9-mediated mutagenesis of tandemly duplicated yellow-y genes and then assessed effects of this visible trait on fly performance. Recessive mutations are only required in one of these copies to restrict melanisation and generate a phenotype clearly distinguished from wild type. The yellow strain showed significant declines in eclosion rates and in the percentage of fliers directly after emergence. Locomotor activity was greater in the yellow strain, and these mutations did not generally affect mating probability, copula latency, or copula duration. The longevity of yellow flies was approximately 10 days shorter than wild-type flies in both sexes. Overall, replacing dyes with yellow body marker for SIT can simplify production, eliminate a step that is known to reduce fly quality, remove potentially hazardous dyes from production, enable accurate discrimination from wild flies, and improve cost-effectiveness; however, direct comparisons of the decrements in performance associated with dyes on mass-reared wild-type flies and disruption of yellow-y genes are now required to determine the relative suitability of these marking methods for B. tryoni SIT.

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Availability of data and material

Stuart Gilchrist and John Sved provided data for a B. tryoni genome assembly which was performed using the high performance computing resources at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment.

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Funding

This work was funded by Hermon Slade Foundation Grant 18/06 and the National SITplus programme through Hort Innovation, using the research and development levy funds from the vegetable, apple and pear, citrus, strawberry, table grape, cherry, and summer fruit industries, with co-investment from South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI), the research arm of Primary Industries and Regions South Australia (PIRSA), and the Australian Government. Quality control assessment received additional support from the SITplus collaborative fruit fly programme. Project Raising Q-fly Sterile Insect Technique to World Standard (HG14033) is funded by the Hort Frontiers Fruit Fly Fund, part of the Hort Frontiers strategic partnership initiative developed by Hort Innovation, with co-investment from Macquarie University and contributions from the Australian Government. AP is funded by the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment.

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Contributions

SWB, PC, AC conceived the research. PT, AC, SWB designed experiments. AP generated a B. tryoni genome. TN performed experiments with assistance from AC, VM, CW. All authors played a role in data analysis. TN and SWB wrote the manuscript, and all authors edited and approved the final version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Simon W. Baxter.

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The authors declare they have no conflicts of interest.

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This research did not involve humans or vertebrates.

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Communicated by Christian Stauffer.

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Nguyen, T.N.M., Mendez, V., Ward, C. et al. Disruption of duplicated yellow genes in Bactrocera tryoni modifies pigmentation colouration and impacts behaviour. J Pest Sci 94, 917–932 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10340-020-01304-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10340-020-01304-9

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