CRISPR-Cas9 Gene Editing in Cockroaches

Researchers have discovered a faster technique to genetically edit Cockroaches using CRISPR-Cas9, cutting the time it takes to perform insect research in half. CRISPR-Cas9 is a bacteriophage-derived molecule that has enabled genetic editing considerably quicker and more efficiently.

Direct parental CRISPR, or DIPA-CRISPR, is a novel approach that allows researchers to avoid microinjecting CRISPR components into insect eggs. This appears to be a huge annoyance in the realm of genetically engineered insects, and it does not work for all of them. Cockroaches can’t be genetically edited with embryo microinjections because of their peculiar reproductive systems. Instead, DIPA-CRISPR works by injecting the appropriate CRISPR tools into a female Cockroaches, resulting in some of her progeny carrying the induced genetic alterations.

To test this approach, the researchers employed commercially available Cas9 ribonucleoproteins (proteins that cause genetic alteration). These ribonucleoproteins were injected into the haemocoels (main body cavities) of two distinct insects: the German Cockroaches (Blattella germanica) and the red flour beetle (Blattella germanica) (Tribolium castaneum). They next looked at these insects’ progeny to check if their genetic alteration had succeeded.

By genetic modification standards, the Cas9 proteins that were designed to “knockout” genes (that is, eliminate a gene from a genome) were extraordinarily effective. More over half of red flour beetle progeny and 22% of Cockroaches offspring lacked the pigment-producing gene that the researchers hoped to eliminate.