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MEDIA RELEASE

Tuesday, June 6, 2006. 12:27pm (AEST)

For original go to ABC News

Scientists are trying to establish where to release the genetically-modified toads.

Gender bending could see cane toad's end

Cane toads could breed themselves out of existence if a Queensland scientist can perfect a gene that would wipe out all females in the population.

The Professor of Developmental Biology at the University of Queensland, Peter Koopman, is working on a gene that ensures female toads only give birth to males.

If the gender bender is successful, Professor Koopman believes the nation's estimated 200 million toads could be a thing of the past.

"The strategy that we're working on is a genetic strategy based on years of working in mice. So we study how mammals determine sex," Professor Koopman said.

"What we want to do is transfer that into the cane toads so that they give rise... they give birth to tadpoles where the males stay male but the female tadpoles sex reverse to become males, so the population ends up becoming all male, and they can't find a mate and the population dies out."

Professor Koopman says the strategy is one part of the "multi-pronged attack on the cane toads".

"So we can't just rely on this as a magic bullet, we've got to do this in conjunction with other things, trapping, toxins or what-have-you," he said.

"Second thing is ... the nice thing about this strategy is that we're introducing a gene into the cane toad which will then be passed on to other cane toads, and eventually, if we release enough of these toads that have the gene, that will be able to spread through the population."

Professor Koopman says he is in the very early stages of his research.

"We've been studying the mechanisms involved in how the embryo determines its sex and we're now in a position where we can take those findings and try to find out whether similar genes are involved in the toad, and start working on those," he said.

Professor Koopman says he is confident one of the nation's worst pests will not even suffer through this strategy.

"I guess that's sad for the male cane toads, but I guess the nice thing is that nobody ends up dying in this strategy. There's no viruses involved, the toads don't die a miserable death. You just get an awful lot of males and the population controls itself that way."

Although Professor Koopman is working with ecologists to establish where to release the genetically-modified toads, his main focus is on producing the sex reverse toads in the lab.

"I can't put a year figure on it, but certainly we'll be able to produce the sex reverse cane toads in a lab environment pretty fast. It's then a question of how those toads do out in the wild, and that's something we really can't tell at the moment."

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Toad Media

MEDIA RELEASE

Tuesday, June 6, 2006. 12:27pm (AEST)

Scientists are trying to establish where to release the genetically-modified toads.

Gender bending could see cane toad's end

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