Novel genome sequences and evolutionary dynamics of the North American anopheline species Anopheles freeborni, Anopheles crucians, Anopheles quadrimaculatus, and Anopheles albimanus.

Anopheles mosquitoes are the principal vectors for malaria and lymphatic filariasis, and evidence for arboviral transmission under laboratory and natural contexts has been demonstrated. Vector management approaches require an understanding of the ecological, epidemiological, and biological contexts of the species in question, and increased interest in gene drive systems for vector control applications has resulted in an increased need for genome assemblies from understudied mosquito vector species. In this study, we present novel genome assemblies for Anopheles crucians, Anopheles freeborni, Anopheles albimanus, and Anopheles quadrimaculatus and examine the evolutionary relationship between these species. We identified 790 shared single-copy orthologs between the newly sequenced genomes and created a phylogeny using 673 of the orthologs, identifying 289 orthologs with evidence for positive selection on at least 1 branch of the phylogeny. Gene ontology terms such as calcium ion signaling, histone binding, and protein acetylation identified as being biased in the set of selected genes. These novel genome sequences will be useful in developing our understanding of the diverse biological traits that drive vectorial capacity in anophelines.

The Development and Expansion of in vivo Germline Editing Technologies in Arthropods: Receptor-Mediated Ovary Transduction of Cargo (ReMOT Control) and Beyond.

In the past 20 years, sequencing technologies have led to easy access to genomic data from nonmodel organisms in all biological realms. Insect genetic manipulation, however, continues to be a challenge due to various factors, including technical and cost-related issues. Traditional techniques such as microinjection of gene-editing vectors into early stage embryos have been used for arthropod transgenesis and the discovery of Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and CRISPR-associated protein (CRISPR-Cas) technologies allowed for targeted mutagenesis and the creation of knockouts or knock-ins in arthropods. Receptor-Mediated Ovary Transduction of Cargo (ReMOT Control) acts as an alternative to embryonic microinjections, which require expensive equipment and extensive hands-on training. ReMOT Control's main advantage is its ease of use coupled with the ability to hypothetically target any vitellogenic species, as injections are administered to the egg-laying adult rather than embryos. After its initial application in the mosquito Aedes aegypti, ReMOT Control has successfully produced mutants not only for mosquitoes but for multiple arthropod species from diverse orders, such as ticks, mites, wasps, beetles, and true bugs, and is being extended to crustaceans, demonstrating the versatility of the technique. In this review, we discuss the current state of ReMOT Control from its proof-of-concept to the advances and challenges in the application across species after 5 years since its development, including novel extensions of the technique such as direct parental (DIPA)-CRISPR.

Cas9-Mediated Gene-Editing in the Malaria Mosquito Anopheles stephensi by ReMOT Control.

Innovative tools are essential for advancing malaria control and depend on an understanding of molecular mechanisms governing transmission of malaria parasites by Anopheles mosquitoes. CRISPR/Cas9-based gene disruption is a powerful method to uncover underlying biology of vector-pathogen interactions and can itself form the basis of mosquito control strategies. However, embryo injection methods used to genetically manipulate mosquitoes (especially Anopheles) are difficult and inefficient, particularly for non-specialist laboratories. Here, we adapted the ReMOT Control (Receptor-mediated Ovary Transduction of Cargo) technique to deliver Cas9 ribonucleoprotein complex to adult mosquito ovaries, generating targeted and heritable mutations in the malaria vector Anopheles stephensi without injecting embryos. In Anopheles, ReMOT Control gene editing was as efficient as standard embryo injections. The application of ReMOT Control to Anopheles opens the power of CRISPR/Cas9 methods to malaria laboratories that lack the equipment or expertise to perform embryo injections and establishes the flexibility of ReMOT Control for diverse mosquito species.

Targeted delivery of CRISPR-Cas9 ribonucleoprotein into arthropod ovaries for heritable germline gene editing.

Cas9-mediated gene editing is a powerful tool for addressing research questions in arthropods. Current approaches rely upon delivering Cas9 ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex by embryonic microinjection, which is challenging, is limited to a small number of species, and is inefficient even in optimized taxa. Here we develop a technology termed Receptor-Mediated Ovary Transduction of Cargo (ReMOT Control) to deliver Cas9 RNP to the arthropod germline by injection into adult female mosquitoes. We identify a peptide (P2C) that mediates transduction of Cas9 RNP from the female hemolymph to the developing mosquito oocytes, resulting in heritable gene editing of the offspring with efficiency as high as 0.3 mutants per injected mosquito. We demonstrate that P2C functions in six mosquito species. Identification of taxa-specific ovary-specific ligand-receptor pairs may further extend the use of ReMOT Control for gene editing in novel species.