PANTROPIC RETROVIRAL VECTORS MEDIATE SOMATIC-CELL TRANSFORMATION AND EXPRESSION OF FOREIGN GENES IN DIPTERAN INSECTS

The control of insects that transmit disease and damage crops has beco me increasingly difficult. The ability to genetically engineer insects would facilitate strategies to protect crops and block arthropod vect or-borne disease transmission. Transformation vectors based on insect transposable elements have been developed, but most have limited host ranges. A promising alternative is the pantropic retroviral vector, wh ich is packaged with the envelope glycoprotein from vesicular stomatit is virus and is replication-defective. We show here that pantropic mur ine retroviral vectors can mediate high-level expression of foreign ge nes in somatically transformed insect larvae and adults of three dipte ran genera, This success demonstrates the potential for germline trans formation mediated by pantropic retroviral vectors.