Section of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, United States
Jared Bennett
Department of Biophysics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, United States
Héctor M Sánchez C
Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, United States
Gregory C Lanzaro
Vector Genetics Laboratory, Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis, Davis, United States
Vector Genetics Laboratory, Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis, Davis, United States
Yoosook Lee
Vector Genetics Laboratory, Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis, Davis, United States
Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, United States; Innovative Genomics Institute, Berkeley, United States
Section of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, United States; Tata Institute for Genetics and Society, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States
Aedes aegypti is the principal mosquito vector for many arboviruses that increasingly infect millions of people every year. With an escalating burden of infections and the relative failure of traditional control methods, the development of innovative control measures has become of paramount importance. The use of gene drives has sparked significant enthusiasm for genetic control of mosquitoes; however, no such system has been developed in Ae. aegypti. To fill this void, here we develop several CRISPR-based split gene drives for use in this vector. With cleavage rates up to 100% and transmission rates as high as 94%, mathematical models predict that these systems could spread anti-pathogen effector genes into wild populations in a safe, confinable and reversible manner appropriate for field trials and effective for controlling disease. These findings could expedite the development of effector-linked gene drives that could safely control wild populations of Ae. aegypti to combat local pathogen transmission.
