Fruit flies are a significant contributor to damaged crops. These flies love citrus, which is a big problem for California, considering how much citrus this state produces. However, this season California has experienced an unusually high population of fruit flies.
Scientists are making gene-edited flies to fight crop damage during these infestations. This technique has been used for years and was typically used for mosquito control, but it could also be used for fruit fly control.
Dr. Hyun-Woo Park, professor of biology, has done research on bacteria that could control mosquitoes and spoken on the two approaches used for gene-edited fruit flies.
“The first one is for the male. They can mortify the gene so that they can only hatch stale malso there is no offspring. The second approach is targeting the females. Then females do not hatch, or right after hatch, they die,” said Park.
Cutting-edge technology could solve this problem by stopping the spread of these flies. This could be a solution because of Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) gene-editing technology.
“This CRISPR technique is now used for gene-edited, and any bacteria gene can be easily modified by this technique. This technique can also be used for eukaryotic genes as well such as fruit flies. It can knock out certain genes or change the DNA sequences,” said Park.
Researchers are applyingthis to pests to control a range of insects that destroy crop production every year. This year, there has been a high population and gene-edited flies could solve the problem, but it is a long process to get to that point, Park explained.
“Once they develop genetically modified fruit flies then they use it in the lab scale. If, on the lab scale, they have good results, they go to the semi-field conditions. They have a greenhouse kind of setup and release those and see how it works,” said Park. “If that is also good, then they have to get approval from federal agencies and state agencies then finally, they could be released into the environment. But the ecosystem is not as simple as in the lab conditions. So we can not predict whether it is going to be absolutely successful or not based on this lab or semi-field results.”
Alyssa Lockwood, freshman biomedical sciences major, explained how nutritionists are concerned about GMOs and how this could be a way to stop changes in the DNA of crops.
“It is a way to keep the crops healthy, I assume, from pests, weeds, herbicides and pesticides, without changing or altering the crops’ DNA. Some people are very concerned about GMOs. I feel like this might be a way to alleviate some of the concerns citizens have about GMOs because maybe we could leave the crops’ DNA unaltered while still fighting crop damage,” said Lockwood.
Because of the uncertainty, it is not possible to fully tell if there will be any downsides. There is always a “what if” factor with techniques like these. Luca Imbriolo, sophomore computer science major, expressed his own thoughts on gene-edited fruit flies and their effects on helping save crops.
“This breakthrough may lessen crop damage and increase the sustainability of agriculture. Nevertheless, unintended ecological effects and regulatory control to guarantee the safe application of genetically modified organisms in the environment remain worries. The possible effects on ecosystems and altering an organism’s genetic composition also raise ethical questions,” said Imbriolo.
Park gave his personal thoughts on the issue.
“In theory, that should be really safe to use and they should not damage the ecosystem. Again, we have to be really careful otherwise there could be disasters. Scientists are doing this because it is – when you consider all the possibilities – it is still very safe,” said Park.
Lockwood voiced her concerns.
“My concerns would be that although there is a positive aspect of fighting crop damage with these fruit flies, could there be negative consequences to the ecosystem? I would want to know more about the editing process and how the phenotype of the fruit flies have been altered,” said Lockwood.
Gene-edited flies have the potential to help California crops. Although the effects are not entirely predictable, the process should still be safe for the ecosystem. This could help the citrus crop stay safe from damage caused by fruit flies.
provides information about the users geographic ancestry, inherited traits and a DNA relative finder option, but the ancestry and health test also includes health information, such as predispositions, genetic health risks and carrier status reports. To get this information, users are required to mail in their spit and can access their results weeks later through their online account.
Dr. Daniel Szeto, professor of biology and biochemistry, explained that the degree to which people are concerned about their information getting stolen varies depending on the person and their intentions.
“If you have nothing to hide, I think the tests are good. [The tests] give you the idea that we are all related, we are not isolated on an island by ourselves. It begins a conversation and the easiness of doing it — just submitting your saliva,” Szeto said. “The privacy is a concern, but I don’t think that 23andMe is sophisticated to the point where they can interpret things like, ‘This person with this type of sequence is lazy and wouldn’t be a good worker to hire.’ I don’t think they can do that. But, in terms of some disease, it would be easier to tell.”
Susannah Balcer, sophomore nursing major, said that the hacking doesn’t change her opinion about the company because of the great experience she had.
“It doesn’t change my opinion because it is important to know your genetic history,” Balcer explained. “I did [the test] to find out if I had any family I was not aware of. My father was adopted and did the test, too. He was able to find his biological mother and father. It was exciting to expand my family on my dad’s side.”
Balcer compared the risk of the genetic test to sending money in a Christmas card.
“It’s a risk I’m willing to take,” she said.
Tania Brooks, sophomore film production major, said she is not as confident.
“After reading articles about the hacking and finding out that so many people’s information got stolen, it is concerning,” Brooks said. “The purpose of [the test] is to be able to safely access information so it does change my mind about taking it. I originally wanted to to be able to learn about my ancestors and history.”
Szeto said he believes that there is room for growth in the genetic testing market and hopes that in the future do-it-yourself style kits will become popularized, allowing for people to not have to send their DNA samples but instead be able to test it themselves.
“You can analyze some things that you’re looking for without needing to send the information to a company,” Szeto said. “You have better control. I think that’ll be a way of advancing this particular technology.”
Since the breach, 23andMe has been hit with several lawsuits, with users claiming they weren’t notified of their test results being compiled in curated lists that were then shared on the dark web, according to The New York Times. The lawsuits are ongoing.