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Section Symposium

Physiology, Biochemistry, and Toxicology

Medical, Urban, and Veterinary Entomology

Insect Cell Technologies for Innovative New Studies and Insecticide Development

Establishment and application of genome-wide CRISPR screens in mosquito and tick cells

Sunday, November 9, 2025
2:22 PM - 2:47 PM Pacific
Location: Oregon Convention Center, F151, OCC
Oral Presentation
Unbiased genetic screens provide a powerful approach to identifying genes involved in a given biological process. Applying ‘the genetic approach’ is not easy or feasible in many non-model arthropods. Nevertheless, annotating gene function is critical to understanding arthropod biology, including the biology of disease vector species such as mosquitos and ticks. Cultured cells provide a tractable system in which to perform genetic screens that would not be feasible to do in vivo due to considerations such as the long lifecycle, difficulty of culture, and so on. Here, we describe our technological approach, which combines cell engineering, bioinformatics, and gene editing technology, to develop platforms for genome-wide pooled CRISPR screening for mosquito cell lines and cell lines from the black-legged tick, Ixodes scapularis. We further describe how the platforms can be used to interrogate diverse aspects of biology, including screen assays useful to identify genes relevant to cellular fitness, immune functions, metal trafficking, and biotoxin entry. Altogether, we have established technology platforms for study of non-model arthropods that are precise, applicable at genome-wide scale, and accessible to standard labs, opening the doors to unbiased genetic screening in mosquito, tick, and other cell lines.