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Survival of the fittest is the Darwinian idea that individuals who harbor genes best adapted to their environment will pass those genes to subsequent generations1. This means that it is fitness that determines whether their genes will survive. This more than 150-year-old concept is perhaps the most significant determinant of engineering a successful gene drive in transgenic mosquitoes. Gene drives, or the super-Mendelian inheritance pattern of a selfish genetic element that allows it to spread through populations2, are being explored for genetic pest management3. In the context of vector control, this strategy aims to either replace wild-type (WT) arthropods with those resistant to pathogens (population modification) or eliminate them all together (population suppression)4. However, transgenic mosquitoes often exhibit fitness costs (also called genetic load) in comparison to their WT counterparts, which means that the transgene will be lost in populations that can outcompete them. Coupling transgenes with a gene drive system is therefore necessary to offset any fitness costs and push the transgene through the population at levels greater than expected from typical Mendelian inheritance4.
Laboratory studies across mosquito vector species have shown that transgenes often display fitness costs5,6,7. For example, Irvin et al. measured various life parameters in Aedes (Ae.) aegypti engineered to express enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) or transposase genes under Drosophila actin 5C or synthetic 3XP3 promoters, and compared them to the wild-type Orlando strain (the same genetic background from which they were derived)5. Most notably, they found that all transgenic strains had significantly reduced reproductive fitness5. Dependent on the transgene, some Anopheles (An.) mosquitoes expressing transgenes that inhibited Plasmodium parasite development also exhibited fitness costs6. Specifically, An. stephensi expressing a bee venom phospholipase (PLA2) under constitutive or bloodmeal-inducible promoters laid significantly fewer eggs compared to controls6. Those authors also found that transgenic Anopheles expressing a different transgene, an SM1 dodecapeptide tetramer did not exhibit fitness costs, leading them to conclude that transgene-conferred fitness costs are dependent on, at least likely in part, the effect of the transgenic protein produced6. Indeed, fitness costs may be attributed to transgene products, positional effects, off-target effects, insertional mutagenesis, or inbreeding effects in laboratory-reared strains7. Gene drives must therefore be robust enough to offset these transgene-induced fitness costs while also avoiding the development of insertions and deletions (indels) that block the drive itself.
Developmental or reproductive fitness costs can be measured in laboratory or cage studies7, with a caveat being that unknown factors in the field may also have an impact. Nonetheless, controlled fitness studies are an important first step when planning or evaluating genetically modified mosquito releases, such as a gene drive program, to determine whether the transgenic line will persist over subsequent generations. For example, Hammond et al. evaluated An gambiae CRISPR/Cas9-based-gene drives meant to disrupt the genes necessary for female fertility8. Through cage studies maintained for at least 25 generations, the authors found that the mosquitoes incurred gene-drive resistant alleles that blocked CRISPR-targeted cleavage and restored female fertility8. Their modeling efforts suggested that fertility in females heterozygous for the gene drive had the most dramatic impacts on gene drive fixation in simulated conditions8. Along these same lines, Ae. aegypti (Higgs' White Eye strain, HWE) engineered to express autonomous gene drive cassettes under different promoters or at different intergenic loci exhibited different rates of gene drive fixation in simulated populations9. Using MGDrivE modeling10, combined with measured rates of indel formation, maternal effects, and laboratory-collected life parameter data, the authors found that mosquito fitness most strongly influenced the persistence of the gene drive in simulated conditions9. Fitness costs that are most likely to impair gene drive efficiency are attributable to somatic Cas9 (over) expression or from the gene that is targeted, particularly in heterozygotes, rather than the intrinsic drive itself11,12,13,14,15,16,17.
Given its significance, fitness is an important factor for the ability of a transgenic line to persist over subsequent generations, and it can be used as an indicator for any physiological effects associated with a transgene. For example, off-target effects may be associated with fitness costs. In this case, backcrossing a transgenic line for several generations is recommended. Furthermore, crossing the transgenic line with one that is reflective of a field population may also be necessary to investigate how well the transgenic population can compete in the real world. To quantify fitness costs so that they can be comparable, this manuscript provides simple protocols for measuring common life history traits in Ae. aegypti mosquitoes, with a particular emphasis on fitness costs associated with transgenes, so that such studies can be more easily reproduced. Protocols include fecundity, fertility, sex ratio, viability, development times, male contribution, and adult longevity. Measuring wing length and area was also chosen as a fitness measurement as it correlates with thorax length18,19 and body size measurements, which is directly linked to bloodmeal size, fecundity, and immunity20,21. Although there are many ways to assess fitness, these parameters were chosen because they reflect reproductive success, are simple to measure, and are commonly reported in the literature.