The GE diamondback moth strain OX4319L-Pxy has been genetically engineered with a single construct to confer red fluorescence and repressible female lethality. The female autocidal trait is anticipated to decrease the number of diamondback moth offspring following field release through elimination of female moths. Any female progeny produced from GE diamondback moth males and non-GE diamondback moth females is likely to die.

Diamondback moth OX4319 contains a Pgdsx minigene (with 7 tetO repeats, tTAV sequence inserted into the female-specific exon E3, but retaining I3f and E4. All endogenous 5′ ATG sequences were mutated to prevent premature translation start) and also comprise a fluorescent marker (Hr5ie1-DsRed2) and piggyBac sequences for genomic insertion.

Construct OX4319 was derived from OX4135 by deleting the tetO×14-VP16, leaving tetO×7-Pgdsx-tTAV. Microinjection of eggs was used for transformation.

Sources: Lin et al. (2013) Engineered female-specific lethality for control of pest Lepidoptera. ACS Synth. Biol. 2:160−166. dx.doi.org/10.1021/sb300123m

USD-APHIS: Proposal to permit the field release of genetically engineered diamondback moth in New York Environmental Assessment. June 2017.