Gene delivery in mosquitos with a vesicular stomatitis virus vector
Yuhang Zhang, Xueli Wang, Huiying Qi, Fei Yuan, Hongyue Li, Qiang Hu, Zhen Zou, Aihua Zheng
TL;DR
Researchers developed a virus-based system to deliver genes into mosquitoes, enabling studies of gene function without harming the insects.
Contribution
A novel vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) vector system for efficient and controllable gene overexpression in mosquitoes is introduced.
Findings
VSV can infect mosquitoes through multiple routes without affecting their development.
VSV allows modulation of target gene expression levels by altering insertion sites.
VSV-mediated gene delivery works across multiple insect orders including Diptera, Lepidoptera, and Coleoptera.
Abstract
Gain- and loss-of-function techniques are essential for comprehensive investigation of gene function. In mosquitoes, effective loss-of-function (LOF) methods such as RNA interference and gene knockout are available. However, convenient and practical methodologies for gain-of-function (GOF) are currently lacking. Here, we developed the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) vector as a GOF delivery system, which efficiently delivers target genes in mosquito Aedes aegypti without affect their fitness. Importantly, by tactically altering the insertion site of target genes within the VSV vector, we can control the relative levels of transcription. This VSV-mediated method resulted in the corresponding phenotypic changes in mosquitoes overexpressing target genes compared to controls. Additionally, we discovered that VSV could infect various orders of insects, including fruit flies (Diptera), fall…
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Taxonomy
TopicsViral Infectious Diseases and Gene Expression in Insects · Mosquito-borne diseases and control · Insect Resistance and Genetics