Galizi, R, Doyle, LA, Menichelli, M, Bernardini, F, Deredec, A, Burt, A, Stoddard, BL, Windbichler, N and Crisanti, A (2014) A synthetic sex ratio distortion system for the control of the human malaria mosquito. Nature Communications, 5. 3977 - ?. ISSN 2041-1723

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Abstract

It has been theorized that inducing extreme reproductive sex ratios could be a method to suppress or eliminate pest populations. Limited knowledge about the genetic makeup and mode of action of naturally occurring sex distorters and the prevalence of co-evolving suppressors has hampered their use for control. Here we generate a synthetic sex distortion system by exploiting the specificity of the homing endonuclease I-PpoI, which is able to selectively cleave ribosomal gene sequences of the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae that are located exclusively on the mosquito's X chromosome. We combine structure-based protein engineering and molecular genetics to restrict the activity of the potentially toxic endonuclease to spermatogenesis. Shredding of the paternal X chromosome prevents it from being transmitted to the next generation, resulting in fully fertile mosquito strains that produce >95% male offspring. We demonstrate that distorter male mosquitoes can efficiently suppress caged wild-type mosquito populations, providing the foundation for a new class of genetic vector control strategies.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Uncontrolled Keywords: Malaria, mosquito.
Subjects: Q Science > Q Science (General)
Q Science > QL Zoology
S Agriculture > SF Animal culture
Divisions: Faculty of Natural Sciences > School of Life Sciences
Related URLs:
Depositing User: Symplectic
Date Deposited: 15 Jan 2020 12:14
Last Modified: 05 Mar 2020 13:59
URI: https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/id/eprint/7508

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