Assessing fitness costs for transgenic Aedes aegypti expressing the GFP marker and transposase genes

Abstract

The development of transgenic mosquitoes that are refractory to the transmission of human diseases such as malaria, dengue, and yellow fever has received much interest due to the ability to transform a number of vector mosquito species with transposable elements. Transgenic strains of mosquitoes have been generated with molecular techniques that exhibit a reduced capacity to transmit pathogens. These advancements have led to questions regarding the fitness of transgenic mosquitoes and the ability of transformed mosquitoes to compete and effectively spread beneficial genes through nontransformed field populations, the core requirement of a genetically based control strategy aimed at reducing the spread of mosquito-borne human disease. Here we examine the impact of transgenesis on the fitness of Aedes aegypti, a mosquito that transmits yellow fever. Mosquitoes were altered with two types of transgene, the enhanced GFP gene and two transposase genes from the Hermes and MOS1 transposable elements. We examined the effects of these elements on the survivorship, longevity, fecundity, sex ratio, and sterility of transformed mosquitoes and compared results to the nontransformed laboratory strain. We show that demographic parameters are significantly diminished in transgenic mosquitoes relative to the untransformed laboratory strain. Reduced fitness in transgenic mosquitoes has important implications for the development and utilization of this technology for control programs based on manipulative molecular modification.