Problem

Can vectorborne diseases such as malaria, Zika, dengue fever, yellow fever, and West Nile virus be efficiently and effectively controlled?

• A gene-editing technique called CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) provides a revolutionary way to modify an organism’s genome by precisely editing a targeted region of DNA.
• Current techniques for CRISPR in arthropod vectors require difficult and inefficient embryonic microinjections to deliver the DNA-editing enzyme (Cas9) that promotes or disables certain traits.

Findings

Entomologists designed ReMOT Control (Receptor-Mediated Ovary Transduction of Cargo) to improve CRISPR by delivering the Cas9 cargo through an easy injection into the blood of female arthropods.

• The cargo is introduced into developing eggs via receptors in the ovary.
• The researchers demonstrated the process by editing the eye color of mosquito offspring.

Impact

ReMOT Control is a substantial improvement over existing embryo-injection techniques, putting gene-editing capability into the reach of nonspecialist laboratories and potentially revolutionizing the broad application of functional arthropod genetics. The technique drastically reduces the cost of editing genes in arthropods.