Journal
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 12, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
NATURE RESEARCH
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-23239-0
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Funding
- University of California, San Diego, Department of Biological Sciences
- Office of the Director of the National Institutes of Health [DP5OD023098]
- NIH NIGMS [P41GM132087]
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Culex mosquitoes serve as a global vector for insect-borne diseases, but progress with genetic tools lags behind other mosquito species. This study introduces a Cas9-based toolkit and methods that could potentially support future gene drive development in these mosquitoes.
Culex mosquitoes are a global vector for multiple human and animal diseases, including West Nile virus, lymphatic filariasis, and avian malaria, posing a constant threat to public health, livestock, companion animals, and endangered birds. While rising insecticide resistance has threatened the control of Culex mosquitoes, advances in CRISPR genome-editing tools have fostered the development of alternative genetic strategies such as gene drive systems to fight disease vectors. However, though gene-drive technology has quickly progressed in other mosquitoes, advances have been lacking in Culex. Here, we develop a Culex-specific Cas9/gRNA expression toolkit and use site-directed homology-based transgenesis to generate and validate a Culex quinquefasciatus Cas9-expressing line. We show that gRNA scaffold variants improve transgenesis efficiency in both Culex quinquefasciatus and Drosophila melanogaster and boost gene-drive performance in the fruit fly. These findings support future technology development to control Culex mosquitoes and provide valuable insight for improving these tools in other species.Culex mosquitoes are a global vector for insect-borne diseases, though progress with genetic tools lags behind other mosquito species. Here the authors present a Cas9-based toolkit and methods that could support future gene drive development in these mosquitoes.
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