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

Abstract

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.

A homing rescue gene drive with multiplexed gRNAs reaches high frequency in cage populations but generates functional resistance

“…This copying mechanism occurs in the germline, resulting in most offspring inheriting the drive, which leads to its rapid propagation throughout the population. This approach have been demonstrated in many organisms including yeast 10–12 , Drosophila 7,13–16 , Anopheles 4,6,8,9,17 , Aedes 18,19 , Culex 20 , Ceratitis capitata 21 , and Mus musculus 22 .…”

Electrochemical detection of glutathione based on accelerated CRISPR/Cas12a trans-cleavage with MnO2 nanosheets

“…Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and CRISPR-associated (Cas) proteins are coupled and used as powerful tools not only for genome editing, but also biosensing purposes. 15,16 The trans -cleavage activity of some Cas proteins can be used to covert biometric events into detectable signals with good amplification efficiency. Cas12a is a class 2, type V RNA-guided DNA endonuclease.…”