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Wang GH, Du J, Chu CY, Madhav M, Hughes GL, Champer J. Symbionts and gene drive: two strategies to combat vector-borne disease. Trends Genet 2022; 38:708-723. [PMID: 35314082 DOI: 10.1016/j.tig.2022.02.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2021] [Revised: 02/24/2022] [Accepted: 02/24/2022] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
Abstract
Mosquitoes bring global health problems by transmitting parasites and viruses such as malaria and dengue. Unfortunately, current insecticide-based control strategies are only moderately effective because of high cost and resistance. Thus, scalable, sustainable, and cost-effective strategies are needed for mosquito-borne disease control. Symbiont-based and genome engineering-based approaches provide new tools that show promise for meeting these criteria, enabling modification or suppression approaches. Symbiotic bacteria like Wolbachia are maternally inherited and manipulate mosquito host reproduction to enhance their vertical transmission. Genome engineering-based gene drive methods, in which mosquitoes are genetically altered to spread drive alleles throughout wild populations, are also proving to be a potentially powerful approach in the laboratory. Here, we review the latest developments in both symbionts and gene drive-based methods. We describe some notable similarities, as well as distinctions and obstacles, relating to these promising technologies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guan-Hong Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
| | - Jie Du
- Center for Bioinformatics, School of Life Sciences, Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Chen Yi Chu
- Center for Bioinformatics, School of Life Sciences, Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Mukund Madhav
- Departments of Vector Biology and Tropical Disease Biology, Centre for Neglected Tropical Disease, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool L3 5QA, UK
| | - Grant L Hughes
- Departments of Vector Biology and Tropical Disease Biology, Centre for Neglected Tropical Disease, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool L3 5QA, UK
| | - Jackson Champer
- Center for Bioinformatics, School of Life Sciences, Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
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Zoh MG, Gaude T, Prud'homme SM, Riaz MA, David JP, Reynaud S. Molecular bases of P450-mediated resistance to the neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid in the mosquito Ae. aegypti. AQUATIC TOXICOLOGY (AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS) 2021; 236:105860. [PMID: 34015756 DOI: 10.1016/j.aquatox.2021.105860] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2021] [Revised: 04/06/2021] [Accepted: 05/01/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Resistance to chemical insecticides including pyrethroids, the main insecticide class used against mosquitoes, has re-kindled interest in the use of neonicotinoids. In this context, the present study aimed to characterize the molecular basis of neonicotinoid resistance in the mosquito Aedes aegypti. Resistance mechanisms were studied by combining transcriptomic and genomic data obtained from a laboratory strain selected at the larval stage after 30 generations of exposure to imidacloprid (Imida-R line). After thirty generations of selection, larvae of the Imida-R line showed an 8-fold increased resistance to imidacloprid and a significant cross-tolerance to the pyrethroids permethrin and deltamethrin. Cross-resistance to pyrethroids was only observed in adults when larvae were previously exposed to imidacloprid suggesting a low but inducible expression of resistance alleles at the adult stage. Resistance of the Imida-R line was associated with a slower larval development time in females. Multiple detoxification enzymes were over-transcribed in larvae in association with resistance including the P450s CYP6BB2, CYP9M9 and CYP6M11 previously associated with pyrethroid resistance. Some of them together with their redox partner NADPH P450 reductase were also affected by non-synonymous mutations associated with resistance. Combining genomic and transcriptomic data allowed identifying promoter variations associated with the up-regulation of CYP6BB2 in the resistant line. Overall, these data confirm the key role of P450s in neonicotinoid resistance in Ae. aegypti and their potential to confer cross-resistance to pyrethroids, raising concerns about the use of neonicotinoids for resistance management in this mosquito species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marius Gonse Zoh
- Univ. Grenoble-Alpes, Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS, LECA, 38000 Grenoble, France.
| | - Thierry Gaude
- Univ. Grenoble-Alpes, Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS, LECA, 38000 Grenoble, France.
| | | | - Muhammad Asam Riaz
- Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture, University of Sargodha, Sargodha Pakistan.
| | - Jean-Philippe David
- Univ. Grenoble-Alpes, Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS, LECA, 38000 Grenoble, France.
| | - Stéphane Reynaud
- Univ. Grenoble-Alpes, Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS, LECA, 38000 Grenoble, France.
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Champer J, Reeves R, Oh SY, Liu C, Liu J, Clark AG, Messer PW. Novel CRISPR/Cas9 gene drive constructs reveal insights into mechanisms of resistance allele formation and drive efficiency in genetically diverse populations. PLoS Genet 2017; 13:e1006796. [PMID: 28727785 PMCID: PMC5518997 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1006796] [Citation(s) in RCA: 168] [Impact Index Per Article: 24.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2017] [Accepted: 05/03/2017] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
A functioning gene drive system could fundamentally change our strategies for the control of vector-borne diseases by facilitating rapid dissemination of transgenes that prevent pathogen transmission or reduce vector capacity. CRISPR/Cas9 gene drive promises such a mechanism, which works by converting cells that are heterozygous for the drive construct into homozygotes, thereby enabling super-Mendelian inheritance. Although CRISPR gene drive activity has already been demonstrated, a key obstacle for current systems is their propensity to generate resistance alleles, which cannot be converted to drive alleles. In this study, we developed two CRISPR gene drive constructs based on the nanos and vasa promoters that allowed us to illuminate the different mechanisms by which resistance alleles are formed in the model organism Drosophila melanogaster. We observed resistance allele formation at high rates both prior to fertilization in the germline and post-fertilization in the embryo due to maternally deposited Cas9. Assessment of drive activity in genetically diverse backgrounds further revealed substantial differences in conversion efficiency and resistance rates. Our results demonstrate that the evolution of resistance will likely impose a severe limitation to the effectiveness of current CRISPR gene drive approaches, especially when applied to diverse natural populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jackson Champer
- Department of Biological Statistics and Computational Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States of America
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States of America
- * E-mail: (JC); (PWM)
| | - Riona Reeves
- Department of Biological Statistics and Computational Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States of America
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States of America
| | - Suh Yeon Oh
- Department of Biological Statistics and Computational Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States of America
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States of America
| | - Chen Liu
- Department of Biological Statistics and Computational Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States of America
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States of America
| | - Jingxian Liu
- Department of Biological Statistics and Computational Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States of America
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States of America
| | - Andrew G. Clark
- Department of Biological Statistics and Computational Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States of America
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States of America
| | - Philipp W. Messer
- Department of Biological Statistics and Computational Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States of America
- * E-mail: (JC); (PWM)
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Champer J, Buchman A, Akbari OS. Cheating evolution: engineering gene drives to manipulate the fate of wild populations. Nat Rev Genet 2016; 17:146-59. [PMID: 26875679 DOI: 10.1038/nrg.2015.34] [Citation(s) in RCA: 241] [Impact Index Per Article: 30.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Engineered gene drives - the process of stimulating the biased inheritance of specific genes - have the potential to enable the spread of desirable genes throughout wild populations or to suppress harmful species, and may be particularly useful for the control of vector-borne diseases such as malaria. Although several types of selfish genetic elements exist in nature, few have been successfully engineered in the laboratory thus far. With the discovery of RNA-guided CRISPR-Cas9 (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-CRISPR-associated 9) nucleases, which can be utilized to create, streamline and improve synthetic gene drives, this is rapidly changing. Here, we discuss the different types of engineered gene drives and their potential applications, as well as current policies regarding the safety and regulation of gene drives for the manipulation of wild populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jackson Champer
- Department of Entomology, University of California, Riverside, Center for Disease Vector Research, Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, USA
| | - Anna Buchman
- Department of Entomology, University of California, Riverside, Center for Disease Vector Research, Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, USA
| | - Omar S Akbari
- Department of Entomology, University of California, Riverside, Center for Disease Vector Research, Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, USA
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Costs of Three Wolbachia Infections on the Survival of Aedes aegypti Larvae under Starvation Conditions. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2016; 10:e0004320. [PMID: 26745630 PMCID: PMC4706305 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0004320] [Citation(s) in RCA: 58] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2015] [Accepted: 12/02/2015] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The mosquito Aedes aegypti, the principal vector of dengue virus, has recently been infected experimentally with Wolbachia: intracellular bacteria that possess potential as dengue biological control agents. Wolbachia depend on their hosts for nutrients they are unable to synthesize themselves. Consequently, competition between Wolbachia and their host for resources could reduce host fitness under the competitive conditions commonly experienced by larvae of Ae. aegypti in the field, hampering the invasion of Wolbachia into natural mosquito populations. We assess the survival and development of Ae. aegypti larvae under starvation conditions when infected with each of three experimentally-generated Wolbachia strains: wMel, wMelPop and wAlbB, and compare their fitness to wild-type uninfected larvae. We find that all three Wolbachia infections reduce the survival of larvae relative to those that are uninfected, and the severity of the effect is concordant with previously characterized fitness costs to other life stages. We also investigate the ability of larvae to recover from extended food deprivation and find no effect of Wolbachia on this trait. Aedes aegypti larvae of all infection types were able to resume their development after one month of no food, pupate rapidly, emerge at a large size, and exhibit complete cytoplasmic incompatibility and maternal transmission. A lowered ability of Wolbachia-infected larvae to survive under starvation conditions will increase the threshold infection frequency required for Wolbachia to establish in highly competitive natural Ae. aegypti populations and will also reduce the speed of invasion. This study also provides insights into survival strategies of larvae when developing in stressful environments.
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