pgSIT: CRISPR-based system developed to control growth of mosquitoes

Context

Using advancements in CRISPR-based genetic engineering, researchers have created a system that restrains populations of mosquitoes. The technique is a precision-guided sterile insect technique or pgSIT.

About Precision-guided sterile insect technique (pgSIT)

• The “precision-guided sterile insect technique” (pgSIT), alters genes linked to male fertility—creating sterile offspring—and female flight in Aedes aegypti.
• The mosquito species is responsible for spreading diseases including dengue fever, chikungunya and Zika.
• The pgSIT uses CRISPR to sterilise male mosquitoes and render female mosquitoes (which spread disease) flightless. 
• The system is self-limiting and is not predicted to persist or spread in the environment.
• pgSIT eggs can be shipped to a location threatened by mosquito-borne disease or developed at an on-site facility that could produce the eggs for nearby deployment.
• Once the pgSIT eggs are released in the wild, sterile pgSIT males will emerge and eventually mate with females, driving down the wild population as needed.