Gene Editing in Apolygus Lucorum

Apolygus lucorum native to the Palaearctic, is an important agricultural pest that causes damage to cotton, vegetables, fruit trees, tea trees, and other commercial crops. Apolygus lucorum is an omnivorous, piercing-sucking pest with a wide host range and strong migratory and spreading ability. At present, the control of apolygus lucorum mainly relies on chemical pesticides, but only relying on chemical control will inevitably lead to the emergence of apolygus lucorum resistance. Therefore, it is very important to find new ways to prevent and control apolygus lucorum.

Figure 1. Apolygus Lucorum. (Kim J., et al., 2018)

Our Services for Gene Editing in Apolygus Lucorum

In the post-genome era, explaining various scientific problems of entomology through gene editing has become an important means of entomology research. In the study on apolygus lucorum, Lifeasible can use CRISPR/Cas9 technology, relying on Cas9 protein to target and cut the target gene sequence, resulting in double-DNA strand breaks. The resulting double-DNA strand breaks can induce cells to initiate a non-homologous end joining repair mechanism or a homologous directed repair mechanism to achieve site-directed insertion, knockout, or modification of the target gene sequence of apolygus lucorum.

Our Methods for Gene Editing in Apolygus Lucorum

Lifeasible can provide the following four methods to introduce the two components of the CRISPR/Cas9 system into the body of Apolygus Lucorum to achieve gene editing.

• The Cas9 protein plasmid and the sgRNA plasmid of the target gene were injected into the early embryos at the same time.
• The Cas9 transcribed in vitro to form mRNA and the sgRNA of the target gene are co-injected into the embryos.
• To construct a transgenic line expressing Cas9 protein in germ cells, and inject the sgRNA of the target gene into the early embryos produced by the transgenic line.
• Construct transgenic lines that stably produce Cas9 and sgRNA, respectively, and cross each other to produce mutant progeny.

Figure 2. Methods of CRISPR/Cas9 introduction into insects.

Advantages

Lifeasible can provide CRISPR/Cas9-mediated transcriptional level regulation technology. We simultaneously mutated both endonuclease domains of the Cas9 protein to obtain a Cas9 mutant with complete loss of endonuclease (dead Cas9). When the Cas9 mutant binds to the target gene sequence, it can prevent gene transcription and achieve knockdown or silencing of gene expression.

Lifeasible can provide CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene sequence knockout, knockdown, site-directed insertion, and modification. If you are interested in our services or if you have any questions, please click online inquiry for more detailed information.