Imperial College London
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DrAngelaMeccariello

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Life Sciences

Imperial College Research Fellow
 
 
 
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Contact

 

a.meccariello

 
 
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Location

 

Sir Alexander Fleming BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Meccariello:2020:10.1101/2020.08.07.240226,
author = {Meccariello, A and Krsticevic, F and Colonna, R and Del, Corsano G and Fasulo, B and Papathanos, PA and Windbichler, N},
doi = {10.1101/2020.08.07.240226},
title = {Engineered sex distortion in the global agricultural pest<i>Ceratitis capitata</i>},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.07.240226},
year = {2020}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Genetic sex ratio distorters have potential for the area-wide control of harmful insect populations. Endonucleases targeting the X-chromosome and whose activity is restricted to male gametogenesis have recently been pioneered as a means to engineer such traits. Here we enabled endogenous CRISPR/Cas9 and CRISPR/Cas12a activity during spermatogenesis of the Mediterranean fruit fly<jats:italic>Ceratitis capitata</jats:italic>, a worldwide agricultural pest of extensive economic significance. In the absence of a chromosome-level assembly, we analysed long and short-read genome sequencing data from males and females to identify two clusters of abundant and X-chromosome specific sequence repeats. When targeted by gRNAs in conjunction with Cas9 they yielded a significant and consistent distortion of the sex ratio in independent transgenic strains and a combination of distorters induced a strong bias towards males (~80%). Our results demonstrate the design of sex distorters in a non-model organism and suggest that strains with characteristics suitable for field application could be developed for a range of medically or agriculturally relevant insect species.</jats:p>
AU  - Meccariello,A
AU  - Krsticevic,F
AU  - Colonna,R
AU  - Del,Corsano G
AU  - Fasulo,B
AU  - Papathanos,PA
AU  - Windbichler,N
DO  - 10.1101/2020.08.07.240226
PY  - 2020///
TI  - Engineered sex distortion in the global agricultural pest<i>Ceratitis capitata</i>
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.07.240226
ER  -
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