Author: Tina Hesman Saey / Source: Science News
A new gene drive may push a species of malaria-carrying mosquito to extinction.
In a small-scale laboratory study, the genetic engineering tool caused Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes to stop producing offspring in eight to 12 generations, researchers report September 24 in Nature Biotechnology. If the finding holds up in larger studies, the gene drive could be the first capable of wiping out a disease-carrying mosquito species.
“This is a great day,” says James Bull, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Texas at Austin who was not involved in the study. “Here we are with a technology that could radically change public health for the whole world.”
Gene drives use the molecular scissors known as CRISPR/Cas9 to copy and paste themselves into an organism’s DNA at precise locations. They’re designed to break the rules of inheritance, quickly spreading a genetic tweak to all offspring.
The new gene drive disrupts a mosquito gene called doublesex. Female mosquitoes that inherit two copies of the disrupted gene develop like males and are unable to bite or lay eggs. Males and females that inherit only one copy of the disrupted gene develop normally and are fertile.
Altered development
Female Anopheles gambiae mosquito’s development was altered by a gene drive that disrupts the doublesex gene. Females that inherited two copies of the gene drive (bottom right) developed antenna (red arrow) and claspers (blue arrow and enlarged images) similar to males. The females’ mouth parts also changed, preventing them from biting to get a blood meal. These alterations made the females unable to lay eggs.
In each of two cages, researchers mixed 300 female and…
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