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Abiotic environments can modify the penetrance of transgene-based lethality systems for insect population control

Perez Galvez, Fernan Rodrigo1; Handler, Alfred2; Hahn, Daniel3; Bredlau, Justin1; Teets, Nicholas1

Published May 21, 2025 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.x0k6djhw3

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Abstract

Modern genetic biocontrol techniques for insect pest management, when compared to chemical insecticide spraying, offer high species specificity and reduced environmental impact. However, some of these methods require the environmental release of genetically modified insects. Because organisms exposed to different environments often show variability in phenotype and gene expression, it is likely that genetically modified insects will also experience environmentally mediated variation, potentially compromising pest control efficiency. This study examines the impact of temperature and nutrition on the early embryonic Tet-off conditional lethality system in Drosophila melanogaster. By independently manipulating parental and offspring environments, we assessed how treatment exposure influenced the probability of larval hatching and the transcript abundance of the transgenic system. Our findings revealed that (1) transgene performance distinctly responds to temperature and nutrition, (2) thermal stress has a greater impact when embryos, rather than parents, are exposed, and (3) extreme nutritional conditions can markedly reduce the penetrance of transgenic lethality. Although changes in transgene transcript abundance were observed, they did not fully explain the phenotypic variation, suggesting that factors downstream of transcription likely drive variation in transgenic lethality.