New Zealand Journal of Zoology abstracts
Minimum specifications for transmissible transgenic biocontrol
agents for brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) population
eradication
D. M. Tompkins
Landcare Research
Private Bag 1930
Dunedin, New Zealand
tompkinsd@landcareresearch.co.nz
Abstract I consider how two fundamental aspects
of parasitology and population genetics—macroparasite aggregation among
hosts and the Hardy-Weinberg principle—govern the theoretical impact of
transgenic forms of a possum-specific nematode Parastrongyloides
trichosuri, that cause female infertility, on brushtail possum (Trichosurus
vulpecula) populations. Assuming chromosomal inheritance of
transgenes, the conditions under which transgenic P. trichosuri would
be an efficacious tool for eradication are predicted to be severely
limited, given the level of aggregation with which this parasite occurs
naturally in its host. These limits indicate that a transgenic form of P.
trichosuri, containing a chromosomally-inherited female infertility
transgene, would need to cause near total infertility in all host
females infected with a single such parasite, for eradication to be
realistically possible. Relatively greater effort is predicted
necessary to achieve thresholds for eradication when transgenic
nematodes are introduced to hosts already infected by the parasite
compared with populations free of the parasite. Under such
circumstances, the predicted effort required is reduced if transgenes
are dominant as opposed to recessive, and introduced in homozygous as
opposed to heterozygous form.
Keywords aggregation; biocontrol; fertility
-control; Parastrongyloides trichosuri; population genetics;
possum; transgene; Trichosurus vulpecula
Z07001; Online publication date 15 May 2007; Received 2 January
2007; accepted 30 April 2007
New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 2007, Vol. 34: 125—140
0301—4223/07/3402—0125 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2007
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