Lessons from the past: historical studies by the University of Maryland and the University of California, Berkeley

Abstract

Males of Anopheles culicifacies, Culex tritaeniorhynchus and Culex tarsalis were sterilized using chromosomal rearrangements, chemosterilants or irradiation, marked with fluorescent dusts and released to determine their ability for disperse and compete with field males for field females and laboratory strain females. Released males were uncompetitive for field females but supercompetitive for lab-reared females with a similar genetic background; i.e. mating was assortative between field and laboratory populations. Apparently field populations were not freely interbreeding and colonization selected for only that part of the field gene pool that was able to survive and mate under cage conditions. Mating barriers could have a significant impact on the dispersal of genetically engineered characters destined to impede pathogen transmission