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Silencing the buzz: a new approach to population suppression of mosquitoes by feeding larvae double-stranded RNAs

Overview of attention for article published in Parasites & Vectors, January 2015
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (93rd percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (96th percentile)

Mentioned by

blogs
2 blogs
twitter
6 X users
patent
3 patents
facebook
1 Facebook page

Citations

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118 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
266 Mendeley
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Title
Silencing the buzz: a new approach to population suppression of mosquitoes by feeding larvae double-stranded RNAs
Published in
Parasites & Vectors, January 2015
DOI 10.1186/s13071-015-0716-6
Pubmed ID
Authors

Steve Whyard, Cassidy Erdelyan, Alison L Partridge, Aditi D Singh, Nigel W Beebe, Rupert Capina

Abstract

Mosquito-borne diseases threaten over half the world's human population, making the need for environmentally-safe mosquito population control tools critical. The sterile insect technique (SIT) is a biological control method that can reduce pest insect populations by releasing a large number of sterile males to compete with wild males for female mates to reduce the number of progeny produced. Typically, males are sterilized using radiation, but such methods can reduce their mating competitiveness. The method is also most effective if only males are produced, but this requires the development of effective sex-sorting methods. Recent efforts to use transgenic methods to produce sterile male mosquitoes have increased interest in using SIT to control some of our most serious disease vectors, but the release of genetically modified mosquitoes will undoubtedly encounter considerable delays as regulatory agencies deal with safety issues and public concerns. Testis genes in the dengue vector Aedes aegypti were identified using a suppression subtractive hybridization technique. Mosquito larvae were fed double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) that targeted both the testis genes and a female sex determination gene (doublesex) to induce RNA interference (RNAi) -mediated sterility and inhibition of female development. Fertility and mating competiveness of the treated males were assessed in small-scale mating competition experiments. Feeding mosquito larvae dsRNAs targeting testis genes produced adult males with greatly reduced fertility; several dsRNAs produced males that were highly effective in competing for mates. RNAi-mediated knockdown of the female-specific isoform of doublesex was also effective in producing a highly male-biased population of mosquitoes, thereby overcoming the need to sex-sort insects before release. The sequence-specific gene-silencing mechanism of this RNAi technology renders it adaptable for species-specific application across numerous insect species. We envisage its use for traditional large-scale reared releases of mosquitoes and other pest insects, although the technology might also have potential for field-based control of mosquitoes where eggs deposited into a spiked larval site lead to the release of new sterile males.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 6 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 266 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United Kingdom 2 <1%
Brazil 2 <1%
Switzerland 1 <1%
Australia 1 <1%
Czechia 1 <1%
Mexico 1 <1%
Unknown 258 97%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 49 18%
Student > Ph. D. Student 47 18%
Student > Bachelor 45 17%
Student > Master 34 13%
Student > Doctoral Student 10 4%
Other 36 14%
Unknown 45 17%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 115 43%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 62 23%
Environmental Science 9 3%
Medicine and Dentistry 8 3%
Social Sciences 4 2%
Other 21 8%
Unknown 47 18%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 22. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 24 January 2023.
All research outputs
#1,695,387
of 25,225,928 outputs
Outputs from Parasites & Vectors
#256
of 5,923 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#22,824
of 364,652 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Parasites & Vectors
#7
of 180 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,225,928 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 93rd percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 5,923 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 6.1. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 95% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 364,652 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 93% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 180 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its contemporaries.