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Gene delivery in mosquitos with a vesicular stomatitis virus vector
Yuhang Zhang1,2, Xueli Wang1,2, Huiying Qi3
1State Key Laboratory of Animal Biodiversity Conservation and Integrated Pest Management, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
Iscience
|October 27, 2025
Summary
Researchers developed a novel vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) vector for gene delivery in mosquitoes, enabling efficient gain-of-function studies without impacting insect fitness and demonstrating broad applicability across insect orders.
Area of Science:
- Molecular Biology
- Entomology
- Virology
Background:
- Comprehensive gene function analysis requires both loss-of-function (LOF) and gain-of-function (GOF) techniques.
- While effective LOF methods exist for mosquitoes (e.g., RNA interference, gene knockout), practical GOF methodologies are limited.
- A versatile and efficient GOF gene delivery system is crucial for advancing insect research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a novel vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV)-based vector for efficient gene delivery in mosquitoes.
- To establish a controllable GOF system in *Aedes aegypti* that does not compromise insect fitness.
- To explore the potential of VSV as a versatile gene delivery platform across diverse insect orders.
Main Methods:
- Development of a VSV vector system for delivering target genes into *Aedes aegypti*.
- Strategic manipulation of target gene insertion sites within the VSV vector to control transcription levels.
- Assessment of VSV-mediated gene delivery efficiency and its impact on mosquito fitness.
- Evaluation of VSV infectivity across different insect orders, including Diptera, Lepidoptera, and Coleoptera.
Main Results:
- The VSV vector successfully delivered target genes into *Aedes aegypti* without adverse effects on mosquito fitness.
- Controllable gene expression levels were achieved by altering target gene insertion sites within the VSV vector.
- Overexpression of target genes using the VSV system induced corresponding phenotypic changes in mosquitoes.
- VSV demonstrated infectivity across multiple insect orders, including fruit flies, fall armyworms, and beetles.
Conclusions:
- The developed VSV vector provides a convenient and effective GOF tool for mosquito research.
- This VSV-mediated system allows for tunable gene expression and functional analysis in insects.
- VSV shows significant promise as a versatile gene delivery platform for a wide range of insect species, facilitating comparative functional genomics.
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