{"id":262113,"date":"2021-05-28T23:56:58","date_gmt":"2021-05-28T20:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/researchers-create-new-crispr-tools-to-help-contain-mosquito-disease-transmission\/"},"modified":"2021-05-28T23:56:58","modified_gmt":"2021-05-28T20:56:58","slug":"researchers-create-new-crispr-tools-to-help-contain-mosquito-disease-transmission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/researchers-create-new-crispr-tools-to-help-contain-mosquito-disease-transmission\/","title":{"rendered":"#Researchers create new CRISPR tools to help contain mosquito disease transmission"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Researchers create new CRISPR tools to help contain mosquito disease transmission<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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\n Larva of the vasa-Cas9 Culex quinquefasciatus mosquito line, which was generated as part of a new genetic toolkit designed to help stop mosquito disease transmission. The image shows the glowing fluorescent protein used to track transgenic elements. Credit: Gantz Lab, UC San Diego
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Since the onset of the CRISPR genetic editing revolution, scientists have been working to leverage the technology<\/a> in the development of gene drives that target pathogen-spreading mosquitoes such as Anopheles and Aedes species, which spread malaria, dengue and other life-threatening diseases.\n <\/p>\n

Much less genetic engineering has been devoted to Culex genus mosquitoes, which spread devastating afflictions stemming from West Nile virus\u2014the leading cause of mosquito-borne disease in the continental United States\u2014as well as other viruses such as the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) and the pathogen causing avian malaria, a threat to Hawaiian birds.<\/p>\n

University of California San Diego scientists have now developed several genetic editing tools that help pave the way to an eventual gene drive designed to stop Culex mosquitoes from spreading disease. Gene drives are designed to spread modified genes, in this case those that disable the ability to transmit pathogens, throughout the targeted wild population.<\/p>\n

As detailed in the journal Nature Communications,<\/i> Xuechun Feng, Valentino Gantz and their colleagues at Harvard Medical School and National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories developed a Cas9\/guide-RNA expression “toolkit” designed for Culex mosquitoes. Since such little attention in genetic engineering has been devoted to Culex mosquitoes, the researchers were required to develop their toolkit from scratch, starting with a careful examination of the Culex genome.<\/p>\n


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