CRISPR Technology

Subject – Science and Tech

Context – New tech based on CRISPR to control growth of mosquitoes

Concept –

Leveraging advancements in CRISPR-based genetic engineering, researchers have created a system that restrains populations of mosquitoes that infect millions each year with debilitating diseases.
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 responsible for spreading diseases including dengue fever, chikungunya and Zika.
The pgSITuses 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.

To know more about CRISPR-CAS9 technology, please click here.