Dong et al. (2018) in a recent paper in PLOS Pathogens describe the results of the genetic inactivation of a broad-spectrum agonist of the malaria parasite, FREP1 (fibrinogen-related protein 1, member of an immune and pattern recognition gene family called […]
Anopheles
Gene Drives and the Potential Benefits of CRISPR Technology
Marshall and Akbari review a range of different proposed gene drive systems and discuss ways in which CRISPR may be useful in engineering them in a recent issue of ACS Chemical Biology. In the years since translocations were first suggested […]
A Protocol for the Highly Efficient Generation of Stable Mosquito Knockout Lines Using CRISPR/Cas9
In their recent paper in G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics, Li et al. describe a highly efficient protocol for the generation of stable knockout lines using CRISPR/Cas9. The ability of effectively targeting and disrupting gene function is essential for gene functional analysis studies […]
Yeast Interfering RNA Larvicides
Mysore et al. recently reported in the Malaria Journal their successful development of a number of Anopheles larvicides consisting of yeast expressing specific siRNAs. RNAi has attracted considerable attention as a pest control tool, particularly in the agricultural space. In […]
Vertical and Horizontal Transmission in Paratransgenic Anopheles Mosquitoes
Wang et al. (2017) report results in Science that appear to make significant progress toward solving one of the more challenging problems associated with using paratransgenic approaches for sustainable insect phenotype modification. Paratransgenesis is an interesting concept involving the genetic […]
Driving Transgenes with Disassortative Mating
Pike et al. (2017) in a recent publication in Science describe a novel approach to rapidly increasing transgene frequencies in mosquito populations (‘gene drive’) for the purposes of reducing or eliminating Plasmodium transmission. There is increasing attention within the insect […]
Modeling Gene Drives in Africa – Seasonal, Spatial and Epidemiological Considerations
Gene drive as a tool for fighting malaria has received much attention because of promising results in the laboratory. Moving these technologies to the field is complicated and Eckoff et al (2016) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of […]
The QF/QUAS System in Anopheles gambiae
Riabinina et al. (2016) recently published research on the olfactory centers of the malaria mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, which may be of interest to the broader insect genomic research community, not only for what it reveals, but because of the technical […]
CRISPR-SD, a programmable Cas9 approach to generating X-shredder lines in insects with XY mating systems
In a recent paper in Scientific Reports, Galizi, Hammond, et al report on the use of CRISPR-Cas9 to develop a sex-distortion system in Anopheles gambiae, which they termed CRISPRSD. Earlier, the group had demonstrated that transgenic An. gambaie expressing the […]
Gene Drive In Anopheles gambiae
Hammond et al.’s just published paper in Nature Biotechnology is the second paper in a month demonstrating effective CRISPR-based gene drive in a mosquito vector of malaria. In this case the main malaria vector in Africa, Anopheles gambiae. Gene drive […]
Cas9-Mediated Gene-Drive In Mosquitoes
Gantz and Bier who demonstrated the fundamental principles of a Cas9-based gene drive system using Drosophila melanogaster in a publication earlier this year have recreated that system in the mosquito Anopheles stephensi with the help of collaborators. Gantz et al. […]
Anopheles gambiae Transgenesis Tool Box – Major Additions
Volohonsky et. al. (2015) in a just-published paper in G3 entitled “Tools for Anopheles gambiae transgenesis” describe a wealth of new tools for creating transgenic An. gambiae. There has been a protocol for Anopheles gambiae transgenesis for over 15 years, […]
New ΦC31 Resources
A rapid method for generating and finding ΦC31 landing sites (attP) with the desired expression characteristics as well as a new method for creating transgene arrays in vivo was recently described by Knapp et al (2015). Albeit these methods were […]
GAL4-UAS in Aedes aegypti
In a just-published paper Zhao et al. (2014) reported the development and testing of a gut-specific blood-driven carboxypeptidase (CP) Gal4 driver line of Ae. aegypti. The CP-Gal4 driver was contained within a piggyBac transposable element and was composed of the […]
Towards a Medea Drive System in Anopheles Mosquitoes
Germ-line specific promoters are useful to insect biologists and Biedler and colleagues (2015) in a just-published paper in G3-Genes|Genomes|Genetics report their efforts to identify, isolate and test maternal germline-specific genes and promoters in the Asian malaria vector, Anopheles stephensi. “We […]
Transgenic Effectors for Neurogenic Manipulation
Genetic technologies will continue to play an increasingly important role in enabling the function of specific neurons in insect behavior to be determined. The genetic technologies available for manipulating Drosophila melanogaster provides not only great examples but some of these […]
Medusa: Harnessing a Sex-Linked Transgenic Drive System to Control Insect Populations
Segregation distorters (also known as drive genes) are selfish genetic elements with a natural fitness advantage – they are passed to greater than fifty percent of offspring in the next generation, breaking Mendel’s first law of inheritance. In nature, drive […]
Morpholino use in Mosquitoes is Promising
Antisense technologies have had limited application because oligodexoynucleotides in vivo have very limited stability. This stability problem due to rapid degradation of short DNA molecules limits the bioavailability of the molecules. Over the years there has been an evolution of […]
Advanced Mosquito Genetic Engineering
For mosquitoes the number of genetic modification technologies that can and have been applied continues to grow, and while still not as deep as the Drosophila toolbox the mosquito toolbox is still impressive in the right hands. Bernardini et al. […]