CRISPR-based gene drives generate super-Mendelian inheritance in the disease vector Culex quinquefasciatus.

Autor: Harvey-Samuel T; Arthropod Genetics Group, The Pirbright Institute, Woking, GU24 0NF, UK., Feng X; Section of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA. fengxc@szbl.ac.cn.; Institute of Infectious Diseases, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Guangdong, 518106, Shenzhen, China. fengxc@szbl.ac.cn., Okamoto EM; Section of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA., Purusothaman DK; Arthropod Genetics Group, The Pirbright Institute, Woking, GU24 0NF, UK.; MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QQ, UK., Leftwich PT; School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK., Alphey L; Arthropod Genetics Group, The Pirbright Institute, Woking, GU24 0NF, UK. luke.alphey@york.ac.uk.; Biology Department, University of York, York, YO10 5DD, UK. luke.alphey@york.ac.uk., Gantz VM; Section of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA. vgantz@ucsd.edu.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Nature communications [Nat Commun] 2023 Nov 20; Vol. 14 (1), pp. 7561. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Nov 20.
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41834-1
Abstrakt: Culex mosquitoes pose a significant public health threat as vectors for a variety of diseases including West Nile virus and lymphatic filariasis, and transmit pathogens threatening livestock, companion animals, and endangered birds. Rampant insecticide resistance makes controlling these mosquitoes challenging and necessitates the development of new control strategies. Gene drive technologies have made significant progress in other mosquito species, although similar advances have been lagging in Culex. Here we test a CRISPR-based homing gene drive for Culex quinquefasciatus, and show that the inheritance of two split-gene-drive transgenes, targeting different loci, are biased in the presence of a Cas9-expressing transgene although with modest efficiencies. Our findings extend the list of disease vectors where engineered homing gene drives have been demonstrated to include Culex alongside Anopheles and Aedes, and pave the way for future development of these technologies to control Culex mosquitoes.
(© 2023. The Author(s).)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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