Highlight: Self-limiting gene drive suppresses malaria mosquitoes
Highlight: Self-limiting gene drive suppresses malaria mosquitoes
Tags: Gene drive, Malaria, Mosquitoes, Self limitingGorm Palmgren, CRISPR Medicine News, 2025.
Malaria claimed over 600,000 lives in 2022, with Anopheles gambiae serving as one of the most efficient vectors in sub-Saharan Africa, where approximately 96% of malaria deaths occur. The emergence of insecticide resistance threatens progress in disease control, prompting the development of genetic strategies to address it. CRISPR-homing gene drives have emerged as the most studied self-sustaining approaches, whilst various self-limiting methods that require repeated releases continue to be explored.
The research team developed a system, termed Male-Drive Female-Sterile (MDFS), that exploits CRISPR-Cas9 to simultaneously perform two distinct functions (see Figure 1). The genetic construct contains an eCFP fluorescent marker, a Cas9 endonuclease under the control of the germline vasa2 promoter, and a guide RNA targeting the female-specific exon 5 of the doublesex gene. The construct was integrated into the doublesex locus at the intron 4–exon 5 boundary using recombinase-mediated cassette exchange.
