Biomathematics Seminar
Tuesday 4/3/07

Speaker: Fred Gould
Department of Entomology, NCSU

Title: Genetic control of pests and invasive organisms: A role for Biomath?

Abstract:
The concept that an animal or plant species’ genome could be altered in a 
manner that would result in control of that species  (i.e. autocidal control), 
or in replacement of a pestiferous strain of the species with a more benign 
genotype was first proposed in the mid-20th century. A major research effort 
in population genetics and ecology followed, and led to development of a set 
of classical genetic control approaches that included use of sterile males, 
conditional lethal genes, translocations, compound chromosomes, and microbe-
mediated infertility. Although there have been a number of major successes in 
application of classical genetic control, research in this area has declined 
in the past 20 years for technical and societal reasons. Recent advances in 
molecular biology and transgenesis research have renewed interest in 
genetically based control methods because these advances may remove some 
major technical problems that have constrained effective genetic manipulation 
of pest and invasive species. I will discuss population genetic analyses that 
suggest that transgenic manipulations may enable development of strains that 
would be 10 to over 100 times more efficient than strains developed by 
classical methods. I will also discuss a proposal for a cross-disciplinary 
research program in CALS that clearly involved the biomath program.