Max Scott Lab

The Commission for the Eradication and Prevention of screwworm (COPEG) has awarded 4 years of funding for the continued development of tetracycline-repressible male-only strains of the New World screwworm, Cochliomyia hominivorax. The focus will be on developing genetic systems that are lethal to female flies at the embryo or early larval stages. The grant also included funding for the assembly of a high quality reference genome sequence of C. hominivorax. To facilitate genome assembly, highly inbred strains are being made by performing over 10 generations of single  pair crosses.

Congratulations to Jodie who graduated from NCSU in December with a BS majoring in Genetics.  Jodie is now working part-time in the lab assisting with fly rearing.

Katherine unconditionally passed her preliminary exam last Tuesday. She is now officially a PhD candidate. Congratulations Katherine!

The special issue of BMC Genetics on “Development and evaluation of improved strains of insect pests for sterile insect technique (SIT) applications” was published on December 1st, 2014.  The issue contains a review on our efforts to make a male-only strain of Lucilia cuprina. Full citation:

Scott, M.J. (2014) Development and evaluation of male-only strains of the Australian sheep blowfly, Lucilia cuprina. BMC Genetics, 15(Suppl 2):S3. doi:10.1186/1471-2156-15-S2-S3

Carolina has accepted a 4 year contract with COPEG to complete her work on the transgenic male-only strains of the New World screwworm. Carolina recently completed a two-postdoctoral fellowship in the lab supported by the NIFA BRAG program. Congratulations Carolina!

Sophia was part of the NCSU team that won first place in best policy and practices section at the annual iGem (International Genetically Engineered Machine competition)  competition in Boston. Well done Sophia! further details

This review covers research on sheep blowfly genetics, genomics, IPM, insecticide resistance, immunological control,  and breeding sheep for resistance to flystrike. In our section we describe past efforts on sheep blowfly genetic control and discuss potential use of the male-only strains we have made. Full details: Sandeman, R. M., Levot, G., Heath, A. G., James, P. J., Greeff, J. C., Scott, M. J. and Bowles, V. M. (2014) Control of the Sheep Blowfly – are we there yet?, Int. J. Parasitol.,Volume 44, Issue 12, 15 October 2014, Pages 879–891. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpara.2014.08.009