piggybac- and PhiC31-Mediated Genetic Transformation of the Asian Tiger Mosquito, Aedes albopictus (Skuse)

The Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, is a highly invasive mosquito and has spread from South East Asia to Europe, the United States and northern areas of Asia in the past 30 years. Aedes mosquitoes transmit a range of viral diseases, including dengue and chikungunya. Aedes albopictus is generally considered to be somewhat less of a concern in this regard than Aedes aegypti. However a recent mutation in the chikungunya virus dramatically increased its transmission by Aedes albopictus, causing an important outbreak in the Indian Ocean in 2006 that eventually reached Italy in 2007. This highlights the potential importance of this mosquito, which can thrive much further from the Equator than can Aedes aegypti. This paper describes the first genetic engineering of the Asian tiger mosquito. This is an essential step towards the development of genetics-based control methods against this mosquito, and also an invaluable tool for basic research. We describe both transposon-based and site-specific integration methods

The effect of cold work on the precipitation and recrystallization kinetics in Al-Sc-Zr alloys

Scandium plus zirconium additions to aluminum offer potent alloy strengthening opportunities with enhanced kinetic stability at elevated temperatures, attributable to a favorable sequence of trialuminide precipitation events which occur. This work examines the additional variable of prior cold work on precipitate aging kinetics, and on the recrystallization of the underlying aluminum matrix. Al-0.07Sc-0.08Zr (at%) alloys have been cast, swaged, and isochronally aged over a range of temperatures to quantify hardening response and degree of recrystallization. Cold-worked specimens are compared to as-cast variants; the recrystallization response of the alloy is compared to pure aluminum. These data demonstrate the expanded and optimized properly space attainable via microstructural response to thermomechanical processing