Germline excision of transgenes in Aedes aegypti by homing endonucleases

• DOI: 10.1038/srep01603
• Publication Date: 2013-04-03T10:08:09Z
• Authors: Azadeh Aryan; Michelle A. E. An...; Kevin M. Myles; Zach N. Adelman
• Keywords: Homing endonuclease

Aedes (Ae.) aegypti is the primary vector for dengue viruses (serotypes1–4) and chikungunya virus. Homing endonucleases (HEs) are ancient selfish elements that catalyze double-stranded DNA breaks (DSB) in a highly specific manner. In this report, we show HEs Y2-I-AniI, I-CreI I-SceI all capable of catalyzing excision genomic segments from Ae. genome heritable Y2-I-AniI demonstrated highest efficiency at two independent targets, with 20–40% Y2-I-AniI-treated individuals producing offspring had lost target transgene. HE-induced DSBs were found to be repaired via single-strand annealing (SSA) non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) pathways manner dependent on availability direct repeat sequences These results support development HE-based gene editing drive strategies confirm utility manipulation modification transgenes important vector.