- Home
- Companies
- Oxitec Ltd
- Products
- Oxitec - Model Sparks - Wolbachia ...
Oxitec - Model Sparks -Wolbachia Technology
Sparks is a new global platform to scale Wolbachia replacement technology, a proven solution to reduce dengue. Sparks will complement Oxitec’s groundbreaking mosquito solution, Friendly Aedes aegypti, which is the leading dengue vector suppression solution that effectively reduces disease-spreading mosquito populations. Known as Wolbachia Replacement Technology, this approach is safe, sustainable, and has been proven around the world in multiple field trials and pilot deployments. Stay tuned as we expand our Sparks™ platform.
The Friendly™ technology platform delivers a targeted, non-toxic and environmentally sustainable solution for controlling pests that spread disease, threaten food production or harm ecosystems. Friendly males carry a self-limiting gene that when passed on, prevents their offspring from surviving to adulthood. With regular releases of Friendly males, the number of offspring – in most versions of the technology, specifically the damaging female offspring – is reduced, resulting in a reduction in the pest insect population. Friendly males, and offspring carrying the self-limiting gene, can be tracked through the linked fluorescent marker gene.
This method can be applied to all kinds of pests, from the mosquitoes that transmit such diseases as dengue and Zika, to moth caterpillars that destroy maize fields. Oxitec is now developing a Friendly™ tick, and the technology has the potential to be applied to animals beyond arthropods.
Our Friendly™ males only target their own species. They will not harm other, beneficial insects – unlike some other methods of control.
Environmentally SustainableOur technology does not use any chemicals that are harmful to the environment, and it has no harmful effects on beneficial species.
Non-persistentThe self-limiting system means that our self-limiting gene cannot establish in the ecosystem.
The proteins of our introduced genes do not produce any toxins or allergens, making them safe for use in any environment.
ScalableOur innovative production technologies are being developed with the potential for efficiently rearing our Friendly™ males at a large scale.
FlexibleOur Friendly™ solutions can be used as part of integrated pest management programs and can be used as a stand-alone solution.
The self-limiting gene is at the heart of the Oxitec method of pest control and is tuned to work optimally in each target species. When our Friendly™ males are released and reproduce with pest females, their offspring inherit a copy of the self-limiting gene. This gene disrupts the proper functioning of the insects’ cells by over-producing a protein, interfering with the cells’ ability to produce other essential proteins needed for development. This disrupts the insect’s normal development and ability to survive to adulthood. Click here for more details about this process.
This gene can be adjusted to function only in females, to enable large-scale and simple production of Friendly males only, and to target the pest female, which is frequently the most damaging.
This self-limiting gene can be turned off with an antidote called tetracycline; allowing us to breed our Friendly™ males and females at a large scale without the need for any additional genetic engineering. Our Friendly™ Aedes aegypti mosquitoes were engineered in 2013, and we have been breeding the strain from those original mosquitoes ever since!
A marker gene has also been introduced to our insects; producing a fluorescent protein called DsRed2. This protein is found throughout the body of the larvae, pupae and adults, and glows under a special light. DsRed2 is non-toxic, non-allergenic and is also inherited by all offspring.
The fluorescent marker is essential for a control program as it allows us to easily examine juvenile pests from the field and, among them, identify the offspring of our Friendly™ males. This a valuable tool for tracking performance of Friendly™ males in the field, providing us with data to tailor our releases and ensure we achieve optimal pest suppression.