ABSTRACT
The goals of insect transgenesis may be divided into two major categories . The first is the transformation of target non-drosophilid species in the laboratory. as a tool to study their molecular biology and gene expression . The second is the transformation of field populations of pest insects with transgenes designed for specific applications. for example making disease vectors unable to transmit pathogens to humans. crops. or agricultural animals . This is clearly a longer-term and more technically ambitious goal than laboratory transformation . There is certainly great need for sustainable new control methods of this kind. due to the severe problems associated with insecticide resistance (compounded in the case of disease vectors by parasite drug resistance) . Huge-scale mass releases of tramformed insects to effect field population changes by simple dilution are unlikely to be feasible in most cases . Therefore. potential cransgenic strategies are heavily dependent on the use of genetic mechanisms able to drive transgenes through natural populations from small release seedings .
