Imperial College London
Portrait Picture

Nikolai Windbichler

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Life Sciences

Reader in Genetics
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 1650n.windbichler

 
 
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Location

 

Sir Alexander Fleming BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Bernardini:2014:10.1073/pnas.1404996111,
author = {Bernardini, F and Galizi, R and Menichelli, M and Papathanos, P-A and Dritsou, V and Marois, E and Crisanti, A and Windbichler, N},
doi = {10.1073/pnas.1404996111},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
pages = {7600--7605},
title = {Site-specific genetic engineering of the Anopheles gambiae Y chromosome},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1404996111},
volume = {111},
year = {2014}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Despite its function in sex determination and its role in driving genome evolution, the Y chromosome remains poorly understood in most species. Y chromosomes are gene-poor, repeat-rich and largely heterochromatic and therefore represent a difficult target for genetic engineering. The Y chromosome of the human malaria vector Anopheles gambiae appears to be involved in sex determination although very little is known about both its structure and function. Here, we characterize a transgenic strain of this mosquito species, obtained by transposon-mediated integration of a transgene construct onto the Y chromosome. Using meganuclease-induced homologous repair we introduce a site-specific recombination signal onto the Y chromosome and show that the resulting docking line can be used for secondary integration. To demonstrate its utility, we study the activity of a germ-line–specific promoter when located on the Y chromosome. We also show that Y-linked fluorescent transgenes allow automated sex separation of this important vector species, providing the means to generate large single-sex populations. Our findings will aid studies of sex chromosome function and enable the development of male-exclusive genetic traits for vector control.
AU  - Bernardini,F
AU  - Galizi,R
AU  - Menichelli,M
AU  - Papathanos,P-A
AU  - Dritsou,V
AU  - Marois,E
AU  - Crisanti,A
AU  - Windbichler,N
DO  - 10.1073/pnas.1404996111
EP  - 7605
PY  - 2014///
SN  - 0027-8424
SP  - 7600
TI  - Site-specific genetic engineering of the Anopheles gambiae Y chromosome
T2  - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1404996111
UR  - http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000336411300033&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
UR  - https://www.pnas.org/content/111/21/7600
VL  - 111
ER  -
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