Traditionally, to understand how a gene
functions, a scientist would breed an organism that lacks that gene --
"knocking it out" -- then ask how the organism has changed. Are its
senses affected? Its behavior? Can it even survive? Thanks to the recent
advance of gene editing technology, this gold standard genetic
experiment has become much more accessible in a wide variety of
organisms. Now, researchers at Rockefeller University have harnessed a
technique known as CRISPR-Cas9 editing in an important and understudied
species: the mosquito, Aedes aegypti, which infects hundreds of millions of people annually with the deadly diseases chikungunya, yellow fever, and dengue fever.
Image : Mosquito larvae from two different lines fluoresce in different colors
thanks to genetic tags that were inserted using the CRISPR-Cas9 gene
editing system.
Researchers led by postdoctoral fellow Benjamin J. Matthews adapted the CRISPR-Cas9 system to Ae. aegypti and were able to efficiently generate targeted mutations and insertions in a number of genes. The immediate goal of this project, says Matthews, is to learn more about how different genes help the species operate so efficiently as a disease vector, and create new ways to control it. "To understand how the female mosquito actually transmits disease," says Matthews, "you have to learn how she finds humans to bite, and how she chooses a source of water to lay her eggs. Once you have that information, techniques for intervention will come."
