UC San Diego

Malaria is among the world's deadliest diseases, killing over half a million people annually. Due to mosquito genetic plasticity, traditional vector control methods are growing less effective. Also, current genetic control systems, e.g Homing-based Gene Drives (HGD) or Female-Specific Release of Insects Carrying a Dominant Lethal gene (fsRIDL), face resistance and efficiency challenges. In order to overcome these challenges, we are adapting the low resistance genetic vector control system, precision guided Sterile Insect Technique (pgSIT) to Anopheles gambiae. Furthermore, we develop a unique Genetic Sexing System (GSS) we term Gynecider (GeneticallY eNcodEd CRISPR Induced Daughter ERadicator) and demonstrate that mosaic CRISPR-knockout of femaleless (fle) in F1 results in 100% female lethality in all individuals scored thus far (n = 2573 mutants). We believe that our systems will help overcome the current genetic vector control challenges and push genetic control to real-life implementation.