Serebrovskii 1940

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Citation

Serebrovskii, A. S. (1940) On the possibility of a new method for the control of insect pests. Zool. Zh. 19: 618-630. (Russian).

Links

Notes

I have not found access to the original article. It is reported to be transcribed in Serebrovsky 1969, which I also do not have access to.

According to https://www.cabdirect.org/cabdirect/abstract/19701000720 a summary of the paper is:

A version in English (pp. 123-237, 4 figs.) of a paper [752] On the possibility of a new method for the control of insect pests by A. S. SEREBROVSKY that was originally published in Russian in 1940 has been included in this publication on account of its historic significance and the basic information it contains on genetic methods of insect control. The following is virtually the author's original English summary.
The new principle of insect control consists of disrupting the reproduction of the pest population by means of translocations. It is well known that individuals heterozygous for some translocations usually form a portion of aneuploid gametes and give more or less non-viable progeny. Therefore, if a sufficient number of individuals with a chromosome set altered by translocations is released into a wild population (with allogamous reproduction), there will arise hétérozygotes for translocations yielding a certain percentage of non-viable offspring. Crosses within this population will be similar to those between species, resulting in sterile hybrids. Theoretical analysis reveals that if a wild population is mixed in the proportion 1: 1 with some race containing only one translocation that produces viable progeny in the homozygous condition and 50% aneuploid gametes in hétérozygotes, the reproduction of the population will be reduced by 43%. If several races with different allelic translocations are released, the reduction in progeny can reach 75%, and if races with 4-5 independent translocations are used, the reduction can attain 95-99% or even more. A population consisting of races with different translocations cannot remain in balance. Those types of chromosomes that happen to be in a minority are subject to elimination. The process of elimination requires many generations and thus the disturbance of reproduction will be protracted. By an additional release of an eliminating race, the disturbance can be maintained permanently. Diverse variants of this method are possible, depending on the biology and economic importance of injurious insects, the cost of breeding races with translocations in laboratories and the difficulties of obtaining viable translocations. It is possible, for instance, to release only males, a method in which there is clearly no danger. The present investigation is purely theoretical. Practical work has been begun with Musca domestica L. and Sitophilus (Calandra) granarius (L.), two insects that differ widely in their cyto-genetics, ecology and type of damage caused.