Bemisia tabaci cryptic species Middle East-Asia Minor I (MEAM1) is a serious agricultural polyphagous insect pest and vector of numerous plant viruses, causing major worldwide economic losses. B. tabaci control is limited by lack of robust gene editing tools. Gene editing is difficult in B. tabaci due to small embryos that are technically challenging to inject and which have high mortality post injection. We developed a CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing protocol based on injection of vitellogenic adult females rather than embryos (“ReMOT Control”). We identified an ovary-targeting peptide ligand (“BtKV”) that, when fused to Cas9 and injected into adult females, transduced the ribonucleoprotein complex to the germline, resulting in efficient, heritable editing of the offspring genome. In contrast to embryo injection, adult injection is easy and does not require specialized equipment. Development of easy-to-use gene editing protocols for B. tabaci will allow researchers to apply the power of reverse genetic approaches to this species and will lead to novel control methods for this devastating pest insect.

中文翻译：

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Silverleaf Whitefly（Bemisia tabaci）中基于CRISPR-Cas9的基因组编辑。

烟粉虱（Bemisia tabaci）隐性物种中东小亚细亚（MEAM1）是一种严重的农业食虫害，是多种植物病毒的媒介，在世界范围内造成重大经济损失。由于缺乏健壮的基因编辑工具，烟粉虱的控制受到限制。烟粉虱难以进行基因编辑由于小胚胎在技术上难以注射并且注射后死亡率高。我们开发了一种基于注射卵黄成年雌性而不是胚胎的CRISPR-Cas9基因编辑方案（“ ReMOT Control”）。我们鉴定了卵巢靶向肽配体（“ BtKV”），当与Cas9融合并注入成年雌性后，将核糖核蛋白复合物转导至种系，从而有效，遗传地编辑了后代基因组。与胚胎注射相反，成人注射很容易，不需要专门的设备。烟粉虱的易于使用的基因编辑协议的开发将使研究人员能够将逆向遗传方法应用于该物种，并为这种毁灭性害虫带来新的防治方法。