New technology aims to genetically control mosquitoes that spread diseases

Ming Li, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, San Diego, demonstrated the classification of pgSIT mosquito larvae

Researchers at the University of California San Diego have used advances in CRISPR-based genetic engineering to create a new system that can suppress the mosquito population that infects millions of people every year with debilitating diseases

This new precision-guided sterile insect technology, or pgSIT, has changed genes related to male fertility-producing sterile offspring-and genes related to female flight of Aedes aegypti

Omar Akbari, Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of California, San Diego, said: “pgSIT is a new scalable genetic control system that uses a CRISPR-based approach to design deployable mosquitoes to suppress populations

Details of the new pgSIT will be published in Nature Communications on September 10, 2021

pgSIT is different from a "gene drive" system, which can suppress disease vectors by passing the required genetic changes to the next generation indefinitely

Akbari said that the envisioned pgSIT system can be realized by deploying sterile male mosquitoes and flightless female mosquito eggs at target sites where mosquitoes transmit diseases

The researchers pointed out in the "Nature Communications" paper: "With the support of mathematical models, we have empirically proved that male mosquitoes that release pgSIT can compete, suppress or even eliminate mosquito populations

Although molecular genetic engineering tools are new, farmers have been sterilizing male insects to protect their crops since at least the 1930s

According to Akbari, it is envisaged that pgSIT eggs can be transported to places threatened by mosquito-borne diseases or cultivated in on-site facilities to produce eggs for nearby deployment

In addition to Aedes aegypti, researchers believe that pgSIT technology can be used for other disease-transmitting species

The researchers said: "This study shows that pgSIT may be an effective technology for controlling the number of mosquitoes, and it is also the first example of real-world release

DOI 10.