Engineering gene drive docking sites in a haplolethal locus in Anopheles gambiae.

ABSTRACT: Gene drives are selfish genetic elements which promise to be powerful tools in the fight against vector-borne diseases such as malaria. We previously proposed population replacement gene drives designed to better withstand the evolution of resistance by homing through haplolethal loci. Because most mutations in the wild-type allele that would otherwise confer resistance are lethal, only successful drive homing and functional r1 alleles permits the cell to survive. Here we outline the development and characterization of two ΦC31-Recombination mediated cassette exchange gene drive docking lines with these features in Anopheles gambiae, a first step towards construction of robust gene drives in this important malaria vector. We outline adaption of the technique HACK (Homology Assisted CRISPR

SUBMITTER: Smidler AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12508426 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature