For Researchers
Acceptability of emergent Aedes aegypti vector control methods in Ponce, Puerto Rico: A qualitative assessment
Tags: Aedes, Genetically modified mosquitoes, Vector control, WolbachiaPérez-Guerra CL, Rosado-Santiago C, Ramos SA, Marrero-Santos KM, González-Zeno G, Partridge SK, et al., PLoS Global Public Health, 2024.
Aedes aegypti control has been fraught with challenges in Puerto Rico. The government has implemented commonly used vector control methods, but arboviral epidemics still occur. It is necessary to explore new Ae. aegypti control methods. This study aimed to understand the ...
Efficacy of Wolbachia-based mosquito control: Predictions of a spatially discrete mathematical model
Tags: Aedes, Mosquitoes, WolbachiaDavid Dye, John W. Cain, PLoS One, 19. 2024.
Wolbachia is an endosymbiont bacterium present in many insect species. When Wolbachia-carrying male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes mate with non-carrier females, their embryos are not viable due to cytoplasmic incompatibility. This phenomenon has been exploited successfully for the ...
Aedes aegypti Controls Ae. aegypti: SIT and IIT—An Overview
Tags: Aedes, Mosquitoes, Vector control, WolbachiaRobert L. Aldridge; Seth Gibson; Kenneth J. Linthicum, Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association, 20:32-49. 2024.
The sterile insect technique (SIT) and the incompatible insect technique (IIT) are emerging and potentially revolutionary tools for controlling Aedes aegypti (L.), a prominent worldwide mosquito vector threat to humans that is notoriously difficult to reduce or eliminate in ...
DENV-1 Titer Impacts Viral Blocking in wMel Aedes aegypti with Brazilian Genetic Background
Tags: Aedes, Dengue, WolbachiaCorrêa-Antônio, Jessica, Mariana R. David, Dinair Couto-Lima, Gabriela Azambuja Garcia, Milan S. G. Keirsebelik, Rafael Maciel-de-Freitas, and Márcio Galvão Pavan., Viruses, 16. 2024.
Several countries have been using Wolbachia deployments to replace highly competent native Aedes aegypti populations with Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes with lower susceptibility to arboviruses such as dengue, Zika, and chikungunya. In Rio de Janeiro, Wolbachia deployments started ...
PSRs: Selfish chromosomes that manipulate reproductive development
Tags: Chromosomal drive, Cytoplasmic incompatibility, WolbachiaXinmi Zhang, Patrick M. Ferree, Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology, 159-160:66-73. 2024.
B chromosomes are intriguing “selfish” genetic elements, many of which exhibit higher-than-Mendelian transmission. This perspective highlights a group of B chromosomes known as Paternal Sex Ratio chromosomes (PSRs), which are found in several insects with haplo-diploid ...
Un1Cas12f1 and Cas9 gene drive in HSV1: viruses that ‘infect’ viruses
Tags: CRISPR, Gene driveQiaorui Yao, Zhuangjie Lin, Keyuan Lai, Xianying Zeng, Guanxiong Lei, Tongwen Zhang, Hongsheng Dai, bioRxiv, 2024.
Synthetic CRISPR-Cas9 gene drive has been developed as a potential tool to control harmful species. However, Cas9 gene drive faces high resistance rate and mitigation strategies developed so far are difficult to implement. Furthermore, studying the resistance to gene drive is ...
CRISPR-mediated germline mutagenesis for genetic sterilization of Anopheles gambiae males
Tags: Anopheles, Genetic engineering, MalariaSmidler, A.L., Marrogi, E., Kauffman, J. et al., Scientific Reports, 14. 2024.
Rapid spread of insecticide resistance among anopheline mosquitoes threatens malaria elimination efforts, necessitating development of alternative vector control technologies. Sterile insect technique (SIT) has been successfully implemented in multiple insect pests to suppress ...
Genome editing in pests: basic science to applications
Tags: CRISPR, Gene editing, Genetic biocontrol, ResistanceChen, X., Palli, S.R., Journal of Pest Science, 2024.
Recent developments in sequencing technologies produced enormous data on gene sequences and the identity of genes in many pest insects and disease vectors. However, the function of many of these genes is unknown. Functional genomics studies to uncover gene function in pest ...
Deep orange gene editing triggers temperature-sensitive lethal phenotypes in Ceratitis capitata
Tags: Fruit fly, Sterile insect technique (SIT)Sollazzo, G., Nikolouli, K., Gouvi, G. et al., BMC Biotechnology, 24. 2024.
The Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata, is a significant agricultural pest managed through area-wide integrated pest management (AW-IPM) including a sterile insect technique (SIT) component. Male-only releases increase the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of SIT ...
Anti-CRISPR Anopheles mosquitoes inhibit gene drive spread under challenging behavioural conditions in large cages
Tags: Anopheles, Mosquitoes, Population genetics/dynamics, Synthetic biologyD’Amato, R., Taxiarchi, C., Galardini, M. et al., Nature Communications, 15:952. 2024.
CRISPR-based gene drives have the potential to spread within populations and are considered as promising vector control tools. A doublesex-targeting gene drive was able to suppress laboratory Anopheles mosquito populations in small and large cages, and it is considered for field ...
Meiotic drive against chromosome fusions in butterfly hybrids
Tags: Transmission distortionJesper Boman, Christer Wiklund, Roger Vila, Niclas Backström, bioRxiv, 2024.
Species frequently differ in karyotype, but heterokaryotypic individuals may suffer from reduced fitness. Chromosomal rearrangements like fissions and fusions can thus serve as a mechanism for speciation between incipient lineages but their evolution poses a paradox. How does ...
Intra-lineage microevolution of Wolbachia leads to the emergence of new cytoplasmic incompatibility patterns
Tags: Arbovirus, Malaria, WolbachiaNamias A, Ngaku A, Makoundou P, Unal S, Sicard M, Weill M, PLoS Biology, 2024.
Mosquitoes of the Culex pipiens complex are worldwide vectors of arbovirus, filarial nematodes, and avian malaria agents. In these hosts, the endosymbiotic bacteria Wolbachia induce cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI), i.e., reduced embryo viability in so-called incompatible ...
Targeting sex determination to suppress mosquito populations
Tags: Mosquitoes, Population suppression, Sterile insect technique (SIT), Vector controlMing Li, Nikolay P Kandul,Ruichen Sun, Ting Yang, Elena D Benetta, Daniel J Brogan, Igor Antoshechkin, Héctor M Sánchez C, Yinpeng Zhan, Nicolas A DeBeaubien, YuMin M Loh, Matthew P Su, Craig Montell, John M Marshall, Omar S Akbari, eLife, 12. 2024.
Each year, hundreds of millions of people are infected with arboviruses such as dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya, and Zika, which are all primarily spread by the notorious mosquito Aedes aegypti. Traditional control measures have proven insufficient, necessitating innovations. ...
Transgenic expression of cif genes from Wolbachia strain wAlbB recapitulates cytoplasmic incompatibility in Aedes aegypti
Tags: Gene editingMcNamara, C.J., Ant, T.H., Harvey-Samuel, T. et al., Nature Communications, 15. 2024.
The endosymbiotic bacteria Wolbachia can invade insect populations by modifying host reproduction through cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI), an effect that results in embryonic lethality when Wolbachia-carrying males mate with Wolbachia-free females. Here we describe a transgenic ...
Transforming malaria prevention and control: the prospects and challenges of gene drive technology for mosquito management
Tags: CRISPR, Gene driveYusuf Amuda Tajudeen, Habeebullah Jayeola Oladipo, Iyiola Olatunji Oladunjoye, Muhammad Kamaldeen Oladipo, Hameedat Damilola Shittu, Imam-Fulani Abdulmumeen, Abdullateef Opeyemi Afolabi and Mona Said El-Sherbini, Annals of Medicine, 55. 2024.
In the era of insecticides and anti-malarial drug resistance, gene drive technology holds considerable promise for malaria control. Gene drive technology deploys genetic modifications into mosquito populations to impede their ability to transmit the malaria parasite. This can be ...
A multiplexed, confinable CRISPR/Cas9 gene drive can propagate in caged Aedes aegypti populations
Tags: Aedes, CRISPR, Gene editing, Synthetic biologyAnderson, M.A.E., Gonzalez, E., Edgington, M.P. et al., Nature Communications, 15. 2024.
Aedes aegypti is the main vector of several major pathogens including dengue, Zika and chikungunya viruses. Classical mosquito control strategies utilizing insecticides are threatened by rising resistance. This has stimulated interest in new genetic systems such as gene ...
Evidence of Differences in Cellular Regulation of Wolbachia-Mediated Viral Inhibition between Alphaviruses and Flaviviruses
Tags: WolbachiaRainey SM, Lefteri DA, Darby C, Kohl A, Merits A, Sinkins SP., Viruses, 16(1):115. 2024.
The intracellular bacterium Wolbachia is increasingly being utilised in control programs to limit the spread of arboviruses by Aedes mosquitoes. Achieving a better understanding of how Wolbachia strains can reduce viral replication/spread could be important for the long-term ...
Stakeholder engagement in the development of genetically modified mosquitoes for malaria control in West Africa: lessons learned from 10 years of Target Malaria’s work in Mali
Tags: Stakeholder engagement, Vector controlBakara Dicko, Souleymane Kodio, Hatouma Samoura, Fatoumata Traoré, Naima Sykes, Mouhamed Drabo, Delphine Thizy, Isabelle Coche, Benjamin Robinson, Kadiatou Sanogo, Bilkissou Yagouré, Samba Diop, Mamadou B. Coulibaly, Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 11. 2024.
From 2012 to 2023, the Malaria Research and Training Center (MRTC), based out of the University of Sciences, Techniques and Technologies of Bamako (USTTB), was part of the Target Malaria research consortium working towards developing novel gene drive-based tools for controlling ...
The haplolethal gene wupA of Drosophila exhibits potential as a target for an X-poisoning gene drive
Tags: Fruit fly, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Sex distorter, X chromosomeClancy D. Lawler, Ana Karla Parra Nuñez, Natalia Hernandes, Soumitra Bhide, Isabelle Lohrey, Simon Baxter, Charles Robin, bioRxiv, 2024.
A synthetic gene drive that targets haplolethal genes on the X-chromosome can skew the sex ratio towards males. Like an ‘X-shredder’ it does not involve ‘homing’ and that has advantages including the reduction of gene drive resistance allele formation. We examine this ...
Engineered Antiviral Sensor Targets Infected Mosquitoes
Tags: Aedes, CRISPRElena Dalla Benetta, Adam J. López-Denman, Hsing-Han Li, Reem A. Masri, Daniel J. Brogan, Michelle Bui, Ting Yang, Ming Li, Michael Dunn, Melissa J. Klein, Sarah Jackson, Kyle Catalan, Kim R. Blasdell, Priscilla Tng, Igor Antoshechkin, Luke S. Alphey, Pra, The CRISPR Journal, 6:543-556. 2024.
Escalating vector disease burdens pose significant global health risks, as such innovative tools for targeting mosquitoes are critical. CRISPR-Cas technologies have played a crucial role in developing powerful tools for genome manipulation in various eukaryotic organisms. ...
