Overview of paratransgenesis as a strategy to control pathogen transmission by insect vectors

Ratcliffe, Norman A.; Furtado Pacheco, João P.; Dyson, Paul; Castro, Helena Carla; Gonzalez, Marcelo S.; Azambuja, Patricia; Mello, Cicero B.

doi:10.1186/s13071-021-05132-3

Parasites & Vectors

Table 1 Summary in approximate chronological order of some of the important advances in the development of paratransgenesis in vector insects

From: Overview of paratransgenesis as a strategy to control pathogen transmission by insect vectors

Insect vectors	Transformed microbes used + effector genes	Paratransgenesis innovation	References
Rhodnius prolixus	Rhodococcus rhodnii + thiostrepton resistance	Original technique described	[66]
R. prolixus	R. rhodnii + cecropin A	Killing of Trypanosoma cruzi	[69, 71]
R. prolixus/Triatoma infestans	R. rhodnii/Corynebacterium sp. + AMPs, rDB3 and endoglucanase	Combinations of effector molecules kill T. cruzi	[77, 82]
Anopheles gambiae	Metarhizium anisopliae + scorpine and scorpine fusion protein	Combinations of effector molecules kill Plasmodium	[100]
Anopheles stephensi	Serratia ASI + 5 anti-Plasmodium effector proteins	Combinations of effector molecules kill Plasmodium	[120]
Anopheles gambiae	Microbiome endosymbionts fully identified for the first time	High-throughput sequencing introduced	[132]
R. prolixus	R. rhodnii + rDB3 antibody fragment	Semi-field simulation of transgenic bacteria spread in CRUZIGARD	[73]
Homalodisca vitripennis^a	Pantoea agglomerans^gfp	Semi-field simulation of transgenic bacteria spread in hydrogel	[128]
An. stephensi/An. gambiae	Asaia^gfp	Semi-field simulation of transgenic bacteria spread	[53]
An. stephensi	Serratia AS1^-mCherry and AS1^-gfp	Semi-field simulation of transgenic bacteria spread	[120]
R. prolixus	R. rhodnii and Gordona rubropertinctus	Model showing negligible risk of horizontal transfer of transgenic bacteria	[133]
An. stephensi	Serratia ASI^{-gfp + mCheery} and kanR genes/+ microbiome in vivo	No horizontal transfer of transgenic bacteria genetic material in vivo	[134, 162]
Anopheles spp.	P. agglomerans	Modelling paratransgensisi^b	[130]
An. stephensi	Serratia ASI^{-gfp + mCheery} and kanR genes/+ microbiome in vivo	Transiently expressed plasmids for checking environmental safety of released genes	[134]
An. stephensi	Asaia + scorpine	Transgene only expressed after blood meal, thus reducing fitness costs	[126]
R. prolixus	R. rhodnii and Escherichia coli expressing dsRNA	RNAi and knockdown of vector genes^c	[74, 111]
Anopheles spp.	Asaia RNaseIII mutant created	Potential for developing an efficient RNAi-based paratransgenesis for vector or parasite gene knockdown	[110, 115]
An. gambiae	CRISPR/Cas9 is a new method of microbe transformation	Potential to transform microbes for paratransgenesis and also mediate gene silencing	[102, 135]
Aedes albopictus	MDVs	miRNA expression system with recombinant MDVs stable for silencing mosquito genes	[90]

dsRNA Double-stranded RNA, gfp green fluorescent protein, kanR kanamycin resistant, mCherry red fluorescent protein, MDVs mosquito densoviruses, miRNA microRNA, rDB3 antibody fragments (encoding murine VH/K which binds progesterone), RNAi RNA interference
^aThe glassy-winged sharpshooter, a hemipteran like the triatomines
^bSee also the paratransgenesis modelling paper by Li et al. [136] based on systems of differential equations
^cThis will lead to RNA interference-based paratransgenesis; see, for example, Asgari et al. [115]

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