yellow, three-eyed, wingless mosquitoes created using crispr … · 2019-11-17 · used developed...
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A team of researchers from the University of California, Riverside, has successfullydeveloped a type of transgenic mosquitoes with the Cas9 enzyme embedded in theirgermline.
The addition of Cas9, which acts as a pair of "molecular scissors" that can cut the twostrands of DNA at a specific location in the genome so that bits of DNA can then beadded or removed, will enable the use of the CRISPR gene editing tool to makeefficient, targeted changes to the mosquitoes' DNA.
The researchers proved their claims by using the CRISPR gene editing tool to disrupt"cuticle, wing, and eye development, producing completely yellow, three-eyed andwingless mosquitoes."
This, they said, represents the first step toward using gene drive systems to controlmosquito populations and reduce the diseases they spread.
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Yellow, Three-Eyed, WinglessMosquitoes Created Using CRISPRGene Editing ToolB Y S U R A J R A D H A K R I S H N A N O N 1 1 / 1 5 / 1 7 A T 7 : 3 5 A M
The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences(PNAS), was led by Omar Akbari, an assistant professor of entomology in UCR'sCollege of Natural and Agricultural Sciences and a member of the university's Institutefor Integrative Genome Biology.
A press release on the UCR's website quoted him as saying, “These Cas9 strains canbe used to develop split-gene drives which are a form of gene-drive by which the Cas9and the guide RNA’s are inserted at separate genomic loci and depend on each otherfor spread. This is the safest way to develop and test gene drives in the laboratory toensure no spread into the wild.”
The team is aiming at using Cas9-expressing mosquitoes together with anothertechnology called gene drives. This will cause the mutations to spread and also avoidthe resistance to reproduction that the mosquito will display toward mutated mosquitoesthat evolution would typically favor.
Aedes aegypti are major carriers of diseases like dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever,and Zika virus. The team feels that the insects are rapidly becoming resistant tocommonly used pesticides.
Low mutation rates in mosquitoes’ cause a poor survival rate for the modifiedmosquitoes. This hampered previous attempts to genetically control pest numbers.
To counter this inefficient transmission of disrupted genes to offspring, Akbari and teamused developed transgenic mosquitoes that already have the stable Cas9 bacterialenzyme in their germline. The team found that this enabled them to edit genomes veryefficiently using the CRISPR system.
"The CRISPR editing tool works like a pair of molecular scissors, cutting out andreplacing specific DNA sequences based on a ribonucleic acid (RNA) guide. In thepaper, the team used the system to disrupt genes that control vision, flight and feeding,resulting in mosquitoes with an extra eye, malformed wings, and defects in eye andcuticle color, among other changes," said the release.
This helps the team control the gene drive and spread mutations instead of letting it diedown.
"These Cas9 strains can be used to develop split-gene drives which are a form of gene-drive by which the Cas9 and the guide RNA's are inserted at separate genomic loci anddepend on each other for spread. This is the safest way to develop and test genedrives in the laboratory to ensure no spread into the wild," Akbari added in the release.
These gene drives greatly increase the odds of a gene passing on to offspring. Thestudy found that the odds went up from 50 percent to 99 percent. This number canpotentially increase to 100 percent when a target gene is disrupted in multiple sites. Tobetter these odds, the team has come up with a technique called multiplexing that hasbeen mathematically modeled to propagate the mutations better.
"Next steps should be undertaken to identify the regulatory sequences that can be usedto express the guide RNAs from the genome, and once these sequences are identifieddeveloping gene drives in the species should be turnkey," Akbari added.
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