Genetically engineered fruit flies could save crops

Releasing genetically engineered fruit flies into the wild could prove to be a cheap, effective and environmentally friendly way of pest control according to scientists at the University of East Anglia and Oxitec Ltd.

The Mediterranean fruit fly is a serious agricultural pest which causes extensive damage to crops. It is currently controlled by a combination of insecticides, baited traps, biological control and releasing sterilised insects to produce non-viable matings, known as the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT).

Lead researcher Dr Philip Leftwich, from UEA's school of Biological Sciences and Oxitec, said: "The Mediterranean Fruit Fly infests more than 300 types of cultivated and wild fruits, vegetables and nuts. It is a real pest to agriculture and causes extreme damage to crops all around the world.

"Of all of the current techniques used to control these flies, SIT is considered the most environmentally friendly as it uses sterile males to interrupt matings between wild males and females. The down side is that these males don't tend to mate as well in the wild because the irradiation method used for sterilisation weakens them.

"Our research looked at whether releasing Oxitec flies, which are genetically engineered so that only male fly offspring survive, could provide a better alternative. Researchers simulated a wild environment within greenhouses in Crete and studied the impact of releasing Oxitec flies.