MSGID: 1:317/3 627201c3   
   PID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
    New technology offers fighting chance against grapevine killer    
      
     Date:   
         May 3, 2022   
     Source:   
         University of California - Riverside   
     Summary:   
         CRISPR gene-editing technology represents hope for controlling   
         the grapevine-killing glassy-winged sharpshooter. Scientists have   
         demonstrated that this technology can make permanent physical   
         changes in the insect. They also showed these changes were passed   
         down to three or more generations of insects.   
      
      
      
   FULL STORY   
   ==========================================================================   
   Scientists at UC Riverside have a shot at eradicating a deadly threat to   
   vineyards posed by the glassy-winged sharpshooter, just as its resistance   
   to insecticide has been growing.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   When the half-inch-long flying insect feeds on grapevines, it transmits   
   bacteria that causes Pierce's Disease. Once infected, a vine is likely to   
   die within three years -- a growing problem for California's $58 billion   
   wine industry. Currently, it can only be controlled with quarantines   
   and increasingly less effective chemical sprays.   
      
   New gene-editing technology represents hope for controlling the   
   sharpshooter.   
      
   Scientists at UC Riverside demonstrated that this technology can make   
   permanent physical changes in the insect. They also showed these changes   
   were passed down to three or more generations of insects.   
      
   A paper describing the team's work has been published in the journal   
   Scientific Reports.   
      
   "Our team established, for the first time, genetic approaches to   
   controlling glassy-winged sharpshooters," said Peter Atkinson,   
   entomologist and paper co- author.   
      
   For this project, the researchers used CRISPR technology to knock out   
   genes controlling the sharpshooters' eye color. In one experiment, they   
   turned the insects' eyes white. In another, the eyes turned cinnabar,   
   a blood-red color.   
      
   Then, the team demonstrated these eye color changes were permanent,   
   passed along to the offspring of the modified parents.   
      
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   CRISPR is based on the immune systems of bacteria. During attacks by   
   viruses, bacteria save pieces of DNA from their invaders. When the   
   viruses return, the bacteria recognize, cut, and destroy the viral DNA.   
      
   Scientists use CRISPR like "molecular scissors" to target specific   
   DNA sequences.   
      
   "This is a great technology because it can be so specific to one   
   insect, and not cause off-target effects on other insects, animals or   
   humans," said Inaiara de Souza Pacheco, UCR entomologist and lead study   
   author. "It's a much more environmentally friendly strategy for insect   
   control than using chemicals."  One of the interesting discoveries the   
   team made is that sharpshooter eye color genes are located on non-sexual   
   chromosomes. All animals have two types of chromosomes: sex and autosomal,   
   or non-sexual.   
      
   "Knowing that white and cinnabar genes are on autosomal chromosomes   
   demonstrates that the inheritance of these genes is not related to the   
   gender of the insect," Pacheco said. "This is important for developing   
   control strategies."  For example, in mosquitoes, it is exclusively   
   the females that transmit viruses to humans. Identifying genes on sex   
   chromosomes that favor female mosquitoes is important for mosquito-control   
   strategies. Conversely, it's important to know when key genes are not   
   on sex chromosomes.   
      
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   To demonstrate that CRISPR-made mutations pass through to subsequent   
   generations, the team also had to establish how to get the sharpshooters   
   to mate in pairs. "That's not always straightforward in entomology,   
   because insects sometimes need more than one other insect to get   
   stimulated for mating," Atkinson explained.   
      
   Now that the team has demonstrated that CRISPR can work in these insects,   
   they have a new goal.   
      
   "We're using CRISPR to try and modify the mouth parts of the sharpshooter   
   so they can't pick up the bacteria that causes Pierce's Disease," said   
   Rick Redak, UCR entomologist and paper co-author.   
      
   There is high likelihood the team will succeed in modifying the mouths,   
   given the efficiency with which they were able to change the genes for   
   the sharpshooters' eye color. The team injected the CRISPR molecules   
   into recently laid eggs, and in some experiments as many of 100% of the   
   eggs became nymphs with altered eye color.   
      
   "It's absolutely amazing because the success rate in other organisms   
   is often 30% or lower," said Linda Walling plant biologist and paper   
   co-author. "The high rate of gene editing success in glassy-winged   
   sharpshooters bodes well for our ability to develop new methods of   
   insect control, as well as understanding the basic biology of this   
   devastating pest."  Atkinson also marvels how close the team is to   
   its goal of creating insects that aren't infectious. "Before CRISPR,   
   generating specific mutations with such ease at such high frequencies   
   was virtually impossible," Atkinson said. "Now we are confident we can   
   come up with ways to create insects unable to transmit this disease."   
   "The outcome of this research is an example of the strength that the   
   agriculture departments in UCR's College of Natural and Agricultural   
   Sciences bring to developing innovative pest control strategies," he said.   
      
   In addition to scientists from UCR's Department of Entomology, the   
   research team included Walling from the Department of Botany & Plant   
   Sciences and mycologist Jason Stajich from the Department of Microbiology   
   & Plant Pathology.   
      
   Their work was funded by the California Department of Food and   
   Agriculture, as well as the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and   
   Plant Health Inspection Service.   
      
   The team is particularly encouraged by the results of their CRISPR   
   experiments on sharpshooters, part of a class of insects for which other   
   molecular control strategies have not previously been effective.   
      
   "It's looking like sharpshooters will become a model organism for   
   the Hemiptera, this big category of piercing, sucking insects," said   
   Redak. "Our model of using CRISPR for them could blow open our ability to   
   control diseases they transmit to plants and possibly, to humans as well."   
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Story Source: Materials provided by   
   University_of_California_-_Riverside. Original written by Jules   
   Bernstein. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Related Multimedia:   
       * Glassy-winged_sharpshooter_and_grapevines   
   ==========================================================================   
   Journal Reference:   
      1. Inaiara de Souza Pacheco, Anna-Louise A. Doss, Beatriz G. Vindiola,   
      Dylan   
         J. Brown, Cassandra L. Ettinger, Jason E. Stajich, Richard A. Redak,   
         Linda L. Walling, Peter W. Atkinson. Efficient CRISPR/Cas9-mediated   
         genome modification of the glassy-winged sharpshooter Homalodisca   
         vitripennis (Germar). Scientific Reports, 2022; 12 (1) DOI:   
         10.1038/ s41598-022-09990-4   
   ==========================================================================   
      
   Link to news story:   
   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220503083111.htm   
      
   --- up 9 weeks, 1 day, 10 hours, 50 minutes   
    * Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1:317/3)   
   SEEN-BY: 15/0 106/201 114/705 123/120 129/330 331 153/7715 218/700   
   SEEN-BY: 229/110 111 317 400 426 428 470 664 700 292/854 298/25 305/3   
   SEEN-BY: 317/3 320/219 396/45   
   PATH: 317/3 229/426