TRANSGENIC ENGINEERING OF AEDINE MOSQUITOES

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Mosquito-borne infectious diseases continue to have significant impact on the health and economy of much of the world. Alternative strategies for control of mosquito vectors could arise through a greater understanding of the genetics and physiology of these insects. Progress in genetic research with mosquitoes will be greatly enhanced by the development of effective and reproducible means of transgenic manipulations. A key component of this capability is the identification and manipulation of insect transposons that are able to efficiently vector genes into the mosquito genome, permit gene tagging, and maintain genes in an active state. The convergence of research in this field has resulted in the successful transgenic manipulation of mosquitoes with several insect transposons, each with its own unique properties. The insect transposon piggyBac has been demonstrated to be effective for genetic manipulation in widely diverse insect species, including mosquitoes. Recently, we demonstrated transformation of Aedes aegypti with piggyBac using the cinnabar eye coloration marker gene. This proposal seeks significant funding to understand and exploit the capabilities of the piggyBac transposon for establishing and maintaining transgenic strains of Aedine mosquito species. Additional piggyBac-based transgene vectors containing desirable genes under the control of either ubiquitous insect promoters or tissue-specific mosquito promoters will be constructed, tested, and combined with the selectable markers for transgenesis. The presence and expression of the transposon and vectored genes will be detected following selection for the co-transforming marker gene at the G1 generation, and analyzed using a variety of techniques including southern hybridization, PCR amplification and sequencing, Northern and Western analyses, and immunoflourescence, as appropriate. Genetic characterization of the stability and movement of transgene sequences within the mosquito genome will be examined over several generations. This research will provide an exciting and much needed capability for significant enhancement of the basic research effort in mosquito genetics and physiology.