Transfection and mutagenesis of target genes in mosquito cells by locked nucleic acid-modified oligonucleotides

Plasmodium parasites, the causative agent of malaria, are transmitted through the bites of infected Anopheles mosquitoes resulting in over 250 million new infections each year. Despite decades of research, there is still no vaccine against malaria, highlighting the need for novel control strategies. One innovative approach is the use of genetically modified mosquitoes to effectively control malaria parasite transmission. Deliberate alterations of cell signaling pathways in the mosquito, via targeted mutagenesis, have been found to regulate parasite development (1). From these studies, we can begin to identify potential gene targets for transformation. Targeted mutagenesis has traditionally relied upon the homologous recombination between a target gene and a large DNA molecule. However, the construction and use of such complex DNA molecules for generation of stably transformed cell lines is costly, time consuming and often inefficient. Therefore, a strategy using locked nucleic acid-modified oligonucleotides (LNA-ONs) provides a useful alternative for introducing artificial single nucleotide substitutions into episomal and chromosomal DNA gene targets (reviewed in (2)). LNA-ON-mediated targeted mutagenesis has been used to introduce point mutations into genes of interest in cultured cells of both yeast and mice (3,4). We show here that LNA-ONs can be used to introduce a single nucleotide change in a transfected episomal target that results in a switch from blue fluorescent protein (BFP) expression to green fluorescent protein (GFP) expression in both Anopheles gambiae and Anopheles stephensi cells. This conversion demonstrates for the first time that effective mutagenesis of target genes in mosquito cells can be mediated by LNA-ONs and suggests that this technique may be applicable to mutagenesis of chromosomal targets in vitro and in vivo.