Towards genetic biocontrol of spotted wing Drosophila

Spotted-wing drosophila (Drosophila suzukii, SWD) is an invasive insect pest that has caused substantial damage to fruit production in the United States since its introduction in the late 2000s. Despite the use of various management strategies including physical, chemical, and biological, current approaches have been insufficient for controlling SWD populations. Genetic biocontrol offers a species-specific and cost-effective alternative strategy for SWD management. We have developed an innovative genetic biocontrol technique called Engineered Genetic Incompatibility (EGI). EGI disrupts the reproductive compatibility between engineered organisms and wild-type populations through the precise manipulation of developmental genes. This is achieved using a programmable transcription activator (PTA) to induce lethal overexpression or ectopic expression of target genes during hybrid embryo development. This presentation will introduce EGI by detailing its mechanism of action and sharing a proof-of-concept in D. melanogaster, where it achieves 100% hybrid lethality. I will then share unpublished results demonstrating the empirical identification of EGI component parts that are enabling the translation of this technology to SWD. Overall, we present EGI as a promising genetic biocontrol tool for managing SWD.