| Literature DB >> 34849822 |
Charlotte Quinn1, Amalia Anthousi2,3, Charles Wondji1,4, Tony Nolan1.
Abstract
The ability to introduce mutations, or transgenes, of choice to precise genomic locations has revolutionized our ability to understand how genes and organisms work. In many mosquito species that are vectors of various human diseases, the advent of CRISPR genome editing tools has shed light on basic aspects of their biology that are relevant to their efficiency as disease vectors. This allows a better understanding of how current control tools work and opens up the possibility of novel genetic control approaches, such as gene drives, that deliberately introduce genetic traits into populations. Yet for the Anopheles funestus mosquito, a significant vector of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa and indeed the dominant vector species in many countries, transgenesis has yet to be achieved. We describe herein an optimized transformation system based on the germline delivery of CRISPR components that allows efficient cleavage of a previously validated genomic site and preferential repair of these cut sites via homology-directed repair (HDR), which allows the introduction of exogenous template sequence, rather than end-joining repair. The rates of transformation achieved are sufficiently high that it should be able to introduce alleles of choice to a target locus, and recover these, without the need to include additional dominant marker genes. Moreover, the high rates of HDR observed suggest that gene drives, which employ an HDR-type mechanism to ensure their proliferation in the genome, may be well suited to work in A. funestus.Entities:
Keywords: zzm321990 funestuszzm321990 ; CRISPR; HDR; anopheles; gene drive; genetic control; mosquitoes; transgenesis; vector biology
Mesh:
Year: 2021 PMID: 34849822 PMCID: PMC8496255 DOI: 10.1093/g3journal/jkab201
Source DB: PubMed Journal: G3 (Bethesda) ISSN: 2160-1836 Impact factor: 3.154
Figure 1Targeted disruption of the white gene (AFUN003538) by CRISPR-mediated HDR. (A) Schematic representation of the HDR knock-in process. DNA repair is mediated through the concurrent microinjection of two plasmid assemblies: a “helper” plasmid, designed to induce a double-stranded break (DSB) at the target locus upon expression, containing a source of Cas9 and gRNA under the control of the vasa2 and U6 promoters respectively; and a “template” plasmid containing the insert region (an actin5c::eCFP cassette enclosed within two reversible ϕC31 attP recombination sequences) flanked both 5’ and 3’ by regions of homology approximately 1 kbp upstream and downstream of the cut site. (B) Diagnostic PCRs of transgenic offspring (G2) deriving from different founders. PCR primer binding sites are represented by triangles. “External” primers flanking the full insertion and binding outside the regions of homology included in the donor construct (red and blue triangles, I) are used to discriminate between wild-type individuals and females heterozygous or males hemizygous for the white allele. “Internal” primers complementary to the knocked-in eCFP sequence (green and orange triangles) are used with external primers to amplify the 5’ region upstream (II) or 3’ region downstream (III) of the eCFP cassette. Three separate transgenic lines were produced and assigned according to injection set (A–D) and sex of founder individual or group (m—males or f—females). wt—wild-type control. (C) Bright-field (left and right) or standard fluorescent (middle) microphotographs of representative individuals demonstrating either the wild-type or white mutant phenotype. Under bright-field illumination, mutant larvae (left) and pupae (right) exhibit lighter global pigmentation compared to wild-type, and are white-eyed (arrows). Transgenic white individuals additionally express cyan fluorescent protein from the actin5C promoter, in a pattern (lower midgut and gastric caecae) consistent with the activity of this promoter in other Anopheles species (middle).
Outcome of independent injection experiments (sets A–D)
| Injection set | Embryos aligned | Larvae surviving | G0 Larvae with transient CFP or RFP expression | G0 transient individuals surviving to adulthood | G0 adults with eye color mosaicism | Crossing scheme | Egg batches produced | HDR events/total G1 (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 640 | 53 | 11 | 4 | 0 | Transient ♂(3) × wt outcross | 5 | 71/174 (42.5) |
| Transient ♀(1) wt outcross | 0 | 0/0 (0) | ||||||
| NT♂/♀ intercross | 1 | 0/130 (0) | ||||||
| B | 350 | 68 | 7 | 4 | 0 | Transient ♂(2) × wt outcross | 1 | 0/21 (0) |
| Transient ♀(2) × wt outcross | 0 | 0/0 (0) | ||||||
| NT♂/♀ intercross | 1 | 0/55 (0) | ||||||
| C | 420 | 40 | 12 | 7 | 0 | Transient ♂(5) × wt outcross | 4 | 90/564 (16.0) |
| Transient ♀(2) × wt outcross | 4 | 20/140 (14.3) | ||||||
| NT♂/♀ intercross | 1 | 0/61 (0) | ||||||
| D | 300 | 72 | 14 | 11 | 0 | Transient ♂ (5) × wt outcross | 0 | 0/0 (0) |
| Transient ♀(6) × wt outcross | 2 | 0/73 (0) | ||||||
| NT♂/♀ intercross | 1 | 0/75 (0) |