New CRISPR Tools Can Help Contain Mosquito Disease Transmission

Scientists have now developed several genetic editing tools that help pave the way to an eventual gene drive designed to stop Culex mosquitoes from spreading disease. As detailed in the journal Nature Communications, Xuechun Feng, Valentino Gantz and their colleagues at Harvard Medical School and National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories developed a Cas9/guide-RNA expression “toolkit” designed for Culex mosquitoes. Since such little attention in genetic engineering has been devoted to Culex mosquitoes, the researchers were required to develop their toolkit from scratch, starting with a careful examination of the Culex genome. While Culex mosquitoes are less problematic in the United States, they are much more of a health risk in Africa and Asia, where they transmit the worm causing filariasis, a disease that can lead to a chronic debilitating condition known as elephantiasis. The researchers also demonstrated that their tools could work in other insects.

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