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Tuta absoluta is a significant pest of field and greenhouse-grown tomatoes and belongs to the family Gelechiidae. It is oligophagous, and its main host is tomato, but it also eats other crops in the Solanaceae family. The most obvious symptom of damage caused by Tuta absoluta is the appearance of blotchy lesions on leaves. Its larvae prefer leaves and stems but may also appear inside fruit. On leaves, the larvae feed only on the leaf flesh tissue, while the epidermis is intact. Fruits are attacked as soon as they form, but the larvae feed only on green fruits. If the infection is severe, complete death of the leaves and damage to the fruit can lead to entry of the fungal disease, resulting in pre-harvest or post-harvest rotting of the fruit.
Due to the severe economic impact of Tuta absoluta and the development of pesticide resistance, this species has been intensively studied, especially in identifying targets for Tuta absoluta control. Lifeasible can provide microinjection protocols based on CRISPR/Cas9 technology to generate heritable mutations in Tuta absoluta using genes such as cinnabar as target genes for evaluation.
| Editable genes | Relevant traits exhibited after editing |
| cinnabar | The cinnabar gene regulates the synthesis of insect eye pigmentation, and CRISPR/Cas9 can induce mutations at the cinnabar gene in Tuta absoluta. Mutations in this gene allow you to perform a mutagenesis screen using only visual methods. |
| Tacinnabar | Tacinnabar is homologous to cinnabar, which affects insect eye color. Mutagenesis of Tacinnabar produces the appearance of red and mosaic eye color Tuta absoluta phenotypes. |
| kr-h1 | kr-h1plays a key role in regulating juvenile hormone (JH). JH is a unique insect hormone involved in molting, reproduction, mating, and behavioral regulation and is considered one of the most important hormones for insect life. Understanding the mechanism by which kr-h1 regulates the JH pathway genes through gene knockout could be used to control the growth of Tuta absoluta. |
Genome editing technology is an essential tool for studying specific functions of individual genes or regulating the expression of important genes in an organism for biological research. Lifeasible offers complete and detailed CRISPR/Cas9 programs for effective gene editing of Tuta absoluta, an invasive pest of global importance. Our services provide regulatory advantages such as low cost, stable efficiency, easy programming, and multiple editing to meet your needs in the fields of insect biology research, pest control based on gene level, and new strain breeding. Please feel free to contact us for customized solutions.
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