Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 22, 2026

Efficient Production and Identification of CRISPR/Cas9-generated Gene Knockouts in the Model System Danio rerio
Published on: August 28, 2018
Heritable CRISPR Mutagenesis of Essential Maternal Effect Genes as a Simple Tool for Sustained Population Suppression
Christopher J Krueger1,2,3, Zhifei Dai1, Cheng Zhu2
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Future Technology, Peking University, Beijing, China.
Abstract:
Invasive species control is important for ecological and agricultural management. Genetic methods can provide species specificity for population control. We developed heritable maternal effect embryo lethality (HMEL), a novel strategy allowing negative population pressure from HMEL individuals to be transmitted within a population across generations. We demonstrate the HMEL technique in zebrafish through genome-integrated CRISPR/Cas targeted mutagenic disruption of nucleoplasmin 2b (npm2b), a female-specific essential maternal effect gene, causing heritable sex-limited disruption of reproduction. HMEL-induced high-efficiency mutation of npm2b in females suppresses population, while males transmit the HMEL allele across generations. HMEL could be easily modified to target other genes causing sex-specific sterility, or generalized to control invasive fish or other vertebrate species for environmental conservation or agricultural protection.
Related Concept Videos
What is Genetic Engineering?
CRISPR
CRISPR and crRNAs
The CRISPR-Cas system stores a copy of foreign DNA in the host genome and uses it to identify the foreign DNA upon reinfection. CRISPR-Cas has three different...
CRISPR
CRISPR/Cas9 Genome Editing

