Germ line transformation of the olive fly Bactrocera oleae using a versatile transgenesis marker. Insect Molecular Biology 15, 95103. Defining Environmental Risk Assessment Criteria for Genetically Modified Insects to be placed on the EU Market The presen

Abstract The olive fruit fly (olive fly) Bactrocera oleae (Dacus), recently introduced in North America, is the most destructive pest of olives worldwide. The lack of an efficient gene transfer technology for olive fly has hampered molecular analysis, as well as development of genetic techniques for its control. We have developed a Minos -based transposon vector carrying a selfactivating cassette which overexpresses the enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP). Efficient transposasemediated integration of one to multiple copies of this vector was achieved in the germ line of B. oleae by coinjecting the vector along with in vitro synthesized Minos transposase mRNA into preblastoderm embryos. The self-activating gene construct combined with transposase mRNA present a system with potential for transgenesis of very diverse species

Global assessment of seasonal potential distribution of Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (Diptera: Tephritidae)

The Mediterranean fruit fly (Medfly) is one of the world's most economically damaging pests. It displays highly seasonal population dynamics, and the environmental conditions suitable for its abundance are not constant throughout the year in most places. An extensive literature search was performed to obtain the most comprehensive data on the historical and contemporary spatio-temporal occurrence of the pest globally. The database constructed contained 2328 unique geo-located entries on Medfly detection sites from 43 countries and nearly 500 unique localities, as well as information on hosts, life stages and capture method. Of these, 125 localities had information on the month when Medfly was recorded and these data were complemented by additional material found in comprehensive databases available online. Records from 1980 until present were used for medfly environmental niche modeling. Maximum Entropy Algorithm (MaxEnt) and a set of seasonally varying environmental covariates were used to predict the fundamental niche of the Medfly on a global scale. Three seasonal maps were also produced: January-April, May-August and September-December. Models performed significantly better than random achieving high accuracy scores, indicating a good discrimination of suitable versus unsuitable areas for the presence of the species