insects Article A Novel Genetic Sexing Strain of Anastrepha ludens for Cost-Effective Sterile Insect Technique Applications: Improved Genetic Stability and Rearing Efficiency Edwin Ramírez-Santos 1,*, Pedro Rendon 2, Georgia Gouvi 3,4 , Antigone Zacharopoulou 5, Kostas Bourtzis 3, Carlos Cáceres 3 and Kenneth Bloem 6 1 Laboratorio El Pino, Programa MOSCAMED, Km 47.5 Carretera a El Salvador, Parque Nacional Laguna El Pino, 06002 Santa Rosa, Guatemala 2 International Atomic Energy Agency–Technical Cooperation TCLAC, Programa Moscamed/USDA, Guatemala;
[email protected] 3 Insect Pest Control Laboratory, Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, Seibersdorf, A-1400 Vienna, Austria;
[email protected] (G.G.);
[email protected] (K.B.);
[email protected] (C.C.) 4 Department of Environmental Engineering, University of Patras, 2 Seferi Street, 30100 Agrinio, Greece 5 Biology Department, University of Patras, 26500 Patras, Greece;
[email protected] 6 Retired, USDA-APHIS-PPQ, Science and Technology, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA;
[email protected] * Correspondence: edwin.ramirez@medfly.org.gt Simple Summary: Tephritid flies, including the Mexican fruit fly Anastrepha ludens, are key agricul- tural pests responsible for billions of dollars of damage each year due to the female flies which lay Citation: Ramírez-Santos, E.; Rendon, eggs and develop maggots in the fruits of hundreds of species of economically-important plants. P.; Gouvi, G.; Zacharopoulou, A.; Bourtzis, K.; Cáceres, C.; Bloem, K. A Integrated pest management practices such as the sterile insect technique were developed which Novel Genetic Sexing Strain of rely on the mass rearing and release of millions of sterile males of the same pest species in order Anastrepha ludens for Cost-Effective to suppress the pest reproductive capacity.