Fig. 1

Female-specific lethal constructs. a The FL11 and FL12 constructs contain a conditional female-specific lethal gene and a fluorescent marker gene flanked by the ends of the piggyBac transposon (see text for details). b Fluorescent phenotypes of New World screwworm transgenic lines. Insects were observed under fluorescent (upper panel) and bright field illumination (lower panel). FL11 transgenic larvae and newly emerged adults (1 and 3, respectively) show bright red fluorescence in the whole body and FL12 larvae and adults (5 and 7, respectively) show strong constitutive green fluorescence. Fluorescence in adults cannot be seen within a few hours of eclosion due to darkening of the cuticle. Consequently, transgenic lines are identified and bred to homozygosity by screening for fluorescence at the larval stages