Effective Cryopreservation of Drosophila suzukii Embryos

Abstract

Spotted wing drosophila (Drosophila suzukii) is an insect pest responsible for global crop losses.1 Genetic engineering promises pest control solutions, but is challenged by loss of transgenic elements to meiotic recombination and genetic drift, stopped only by laborious methods.2 Cryopreservation could prevent this loss, reduce labor to maintain fly populations, capture genetic diversity, and facilitate sharing and storage of useful D. suzukii lines. While effective for Drosophila melanogaster, cryopreservation remains ineffective for D. suzukii.3 We demonstrate an effective method for cryopreserving D. suzukii embryos, cataloging effectiveness at each procedural step to guide further optimization.