@article{arp_williamson_vasquez_quintero_lowman_sagel_scott_2024, title={Doxycycline is a viable alternative to tetracycline for use in insect Tet-Off transgenic sexing systems, as assessed in the blowflies Cochliomyia hominivorax and Lucilia cuprina (Diptera: Calliphoridae)}, volume={2}, ISSN={["1938-291X"]}, url={https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/toae023}, DOI={10.1093/jee/toae023}, abstractNote={Abstract}, journal={JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY}, author={Arp, Alex P. and Williamson, Megan E. and Vasquez, Mario and Quintero, Gladys and Lowman, Aidamalia Vargas and Sagel, Agustin and Scott, Maxwell J.}, editor={Gerry, AlecEditor}, year={2024}, month={Feb} }
 @article{novas_basika_williamson_fresia_menchaca_scott_2023, title={Identification and functional analysis of <i>Cochliomyia hominivorax</i><scp>U6</scp> gene promoters}, volume={32}, ISSN={0962-1075 1365-2583}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/imb.12875}, DOI={10.1111/imb.12875}, abstractNote={Abstract}, number={6}, journal={Insect Molecular Biology}, publisher={Wiley}, author={Novas, Rossina and Basika, Tatiana and Williamson, Megan E. and Fresia, Pablo and Menchaca, Alejo and Scott, Maxwell J.}, year={2023}, month={Sep}, pages={716–724} }
 @article{williamson_yan_scott_2021, title={Conditional knockdown of transformer in sheep blow fly suggests a role in repression of dosage compensation and potential for population suppression}, volume={17}, ISSN={1553-7404}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1009792}, DOI={10.1371/journal.pgen.1009792}, abstractNote={Thetransformer(tra) gene is essential for female development in many insect species, including the Australian sheep blow fly,Lucilia cuprina. Sex-specifictraRNA splicing is controlled bySex lethal(Sxl) inDrosophila melanogasterbut is auto-regulated inL.cuprina.Sxlalso represses X chromosome dosage compensation in femaleD.melanogaster. We have developed conditionalLctraRNAi knockdown strains using the tet-off system. Four strains did not produce females on diet without tetracycline and could potentially be used for genetic control ofL.cuprina. In one strain, which showed both maternal and zygotic tTA expression, most XX transformed males died at the pupal stage. RNAseq and qRT-PCR analyses of mid-stage pupae showed increased expression of X-linked genes in XX individuals. These results suggest thatLctrapromotes somatic sexual differentiation and inhibits X chromosome dosage compensation in femaleL.cuprina. However, XX flies homozygous for a loss-of-functionLctraknockin mutation were fully transformed and showed high pupal eclosion. Two of five X-linked genes examined showed a significant increase in mRNA levels in XX males. The stronger phenotype in the RNAi knockdown strain could indicate that maternalLctraexpression may be essential for initiation of dosage compensation suppression in female embryos.}, number={10}, journal={PLOS Genetics}, publisher={Public Library of Science (PLoS)}, author={Williamson, Megan E. and Yan, Ying and Scott, Maxwell J.}, editor={Palli, Subba ReddyEditor}, year={2021}, month={Oct}, pages={e1009792} }
 @article{yan_williamson_scott_2020, title={Using Moderate Transgene Expression to Improve the Genetic Sexing System of the Australian Sheep Blow Fly Lucilia cuprina}, volume={11}, ISSN={2075-4450}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects11110797}, DOI={10.3390/insects11110797}, abstractNote={The sterile insect technique (SIT) is a promising strategy to control the Australian sheep blow fly Lucilia cuprina, a major pest of sheep. We have previously developed a transgenic embryonic sexing system (TESS) for this pest to facilitate the potential SIT application. TESS carry two transgenes, a tetracycline transactivator (tTA) driver and a tTA-activated pro-apoptotic effector. TESS females die at the embryonic stage unless tetracycline is supplied in the diet. However, undesired female sterility was observed in some TESS strains without tetracycline due to expression of tTA in ovaries. Here we investigate if TESS that combine transgenes with relatively low/moderate expression/activity improves the fertility of TESS females. tTA driver lines were evaluated for tTA expression by quantitative real time PCR and/or by crossing with a tTA-activated RFPex effector line. Fertility and lethality tests showed that a TESS strain containing a driver line with moderate tTA expression and an effector line showing moderate pro-apoptotic activity could recover the fertility of parental females and eliminated all female offspring at the embryonic stage. Consequently, such a strain could be further evaluated for an SIT program for L. cuprina, and such a “moderate strategy” could be considered for the TESS development in other pest species.}, number={11}, journal={Insects}, publisher={MDPI AG}, author={Yan, Ying and Williamson, Megan E. and Scott, Maxwell J.}, year={2020}, month={Nov}, pages={797} }
 @article{yan_williamson_davis_andere_picard_scott_2019, title={Improved transgenic sexing strains for genetic control of the Australian sheep blow fly Lucilia cuprina using embryo-specific gene promoters}, volume={295}, ISSN={1617-4615 1617-4623}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00438-019-01622-3}, DOI={10.1007/s00438-019-01622-3}, abstractNote={For genetic approaches for controlling insect pests such as the sterile insect technique (SIT), it is advantageous to release only males as females are ineffective as control agents and they consume about 50% of the diet. Here we developed tetracycline-repressible Lucilia cuprina transgenic strains in which adult females were fully fertile and viable on a diet that lacked tetracycline and all of their female offspring died at the embryo stage. The transgenic strains are an improvement over the strains we developed previously, which had the disadvantage that adult females on diet without tetracycline were sterile and died prematurely. This was possibly due to the low level expression of the effector gene in ovaries. In the strains developed in this study, the early promoters from L. cuprina nullo or Cochliomyia macellaria CG14427 genes were used to drive the tetracycline transactivator (tTA) expression in the early embryo. In the absence of tetracycline, tTA activates expression of the proapoptotic gene Lshid which contains a female-specific intron. Consequently, only females produce active HID protein and die at the embryo stage. Crossing the tTA-expressing driver lines with an RFPex reporter line confirmed that there was no expression of the effector gene in the ovary. These new embryonic L. cuprina transgenic sexing strains hold great promise for genetic control programs and the system reported here might also be transferable to other major calliphorid livestock pests such as the New World screwworm, Cochliomyia hominivorax.}, number={2}, journal={Molecular Genetics and Genomics}, publisher={Springer Science and Business Media LLC}, author={Yan, Ying and Williamson, Megan E. and Davis, Rebecca J. and Andere, Anne A. and Picard, Christine J. and Scott, Maxwell J.}, year={2019}, month={Nov}, pages={287–298} }
 @article{paulo_williamson_arp_li_sagel_skoda_sanchez-gallego_vasquez_quintero_pérez de león_et al._2019, title={Specific Gene Disruption in the Major Livestock Pests<i>Cochliomyia hominivorax</i>and<i>Lucilia cuprina</i>Using CRISPR/Cas9}, volume={9}, ISSN={2160-1836}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1534/g3.119.400544}, DOI={10.1534/g3.119.400544}, abstractNote={Abstract}, number={9}, journal={G3 Genes|Genomes|Genetics}, publisher={Oxford University Press (OUP)}, author={Paulo, Daniel F and Williamson, Megan E and Arp, Alex P and Li, Fang and Sagel, Agustin and Skoda, Steven R and Sanchez-Gallego, Joel and Vasquez, Mario and Quintero, Gladys and Pérez de León, Adalberto A and et al.}, year={2019}, month={Sep}, pages={3045–3055} }