CRISPR Mediated Transactivation in Aedes aegypti

As a major insect vector of numerous arboviruses, Aedes aegypti poses a significant global health and economic burden. To understand its biology with the goal of reducing its burden, numerous genetic engineering tools have been exploited. For example, current tools have focused either on knocking-down RNA transcripts, inducing loss-of-function mutations, or expressing foreign DNA. However, to date there lacks an efficient method for transactivating endogenous genes. To fill this void, here we developed a CRISPR activation (CRISPRa) system in Ae. aegypti able to programmably transactivate target gene expression.