Dilani Padukka Vidanelage Desha, Dassanayake Ranil Samantha, Tyagi Brij Kishore, Gunawardene Yasanthi Illika Nilmini Silva
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Colombo, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Sponsored Research & Industrial Centre, VIT University, Vellore (TN), India.
Front Insect Sci. 2022 Sep 30;2:957570. doi: 10.3389/finsc.2022.957570. eCollection 2022.
Transgenic mosquitoes developed by genetic manipulation, offer a promising strategy for the sustainable and effective control of mosquito-borne diseases. This strategy relies on the mass release of transgenic mosquitoes into the wild, where their transgene is expected to persist in the natural environment, either permanently or transiently, within the mosquito population. In such circumstances, the fitness of transgenic mosquitoes is an important factor in determining their survival in the wild. The impact of transgene expression, insertional mutagenesis, inbreeding depression related to laboratory adaptation, and the hitchhiking effect involved in developing homozygous mosquito lines can all have an effect on the fitness of transgenic mosquitoes. Therefore, real-time estimation of transgene-associated fitness cost is imperative for modeling and planning transgenic mosquito release programs. This can be achieved by directly comparing fitness parameters in individuals homozygous or hemizygous for the transgene and their wild-type counterparts, or by cage invasion experiments to monitor the frequency of the transgenic allele over multiple generations. Recent advancements such as site-specific integration systems and gene drives, provide platforms to address fitness issues in transgenic mosquitoes. More research on the fitness of transgenic individuals is required to develop transgenic mosquitoes with a low fitness cost.
通过基因操作培育的转基因蚊子为可持续、有效控制蚊媒疾病提供了一种很有前景的策略。该策略依赖于将转基因蚊子大量释放到野外，预期其转基因会在蚊子种群中永久或短暂地在自然环境中持续存在。在这种情况下，转基因蚊子的适应性是决定其在野外生存的一个重要因素。转基因表达、插入诱变、与实验室适应相关的近亲繁殖衰退以及培育纯合蚊子品系中涉及的搭便车效应，都可能对转基因蚊子的适应性产生影响。因此，实时估计转基因相关的适应性成本对于模拟和规划转基因蚊子释放计划至关重要。这可以通过直接比较转基因纯合或半合个体与其野生型对应个体的适应性参数来实现，或者通过笼内入侵实验来监测多代转基因等位基因的频率。诸如位点特异性整合系统和基因驱动等最新进展，为解决转基因蚊子的适应性问题提供了平台。需要对转基因个体的适应性进行更多研究，以培育出适应性成本低的转基因蚊子。
