TY - JOUR
T1 - CRISPR-based gene drives generate super-Mendelian inheritance in the disease vector Culex quinquefasciatus
AU - Harvey-Samuel, Tim
AU - Feng, Xuechun
AU - Okamoto, Emily M.
AU - Purusothaman, Deepak Kumar
AU - Leftwich, Philip T.
AU - Alphey, Luke
AU - Gantz, Valentino M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).
PY - 2023/11/20
Y1 - 2023/11/20
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85177462854&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41467-023-41834-1
DO - 10.1038/s41467-023-41834-1
M3 - Article
C2 - 37985762
AN - SCOPUS:85177462854
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 14
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
IS - 1
M1 - 7561
ER -