Insect transgenesis applied to tephritid pest control

Tephritid fruit fly species cause major economical losses in crops worldwide. Genetic transformation of insect pests, which are targets of the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), a key component of area-wide pest management, has been achieved for several years. For the medfly Ceratitis capitata as well as several Bactrocera and Anastrepha species, germline transformation can now be used to bioengineer strains that should increase the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of the SIT. Novel transformation vectors, robust genetic markers and diverse promoters to drive stage- and tissue-specific gene expression provide powerful tools to test the contribution that these technologies can make to current SIT programmes.