FLP-MEDIATED RECOMBINATION IN THE VECTOR MOSQUITO, AEDES-AEGYPTI

The activity of a yeast recombinase, FLP, on specific target DNA sequences, FRT, has been demonstrated in embryos of the vector mosquito, Aedes aegypti. In a series of experiments, plasmids containing the FLP recombinase under control of a heterologous heat-shock gene promoter were co-injected with target plasmids containing FRT sites into preblastoderm stage mosquito embryos. FLP-mediated recombination was detected between (i) tandem repeats of FRT sites leading to the excision of specific DNA sequences and (ii) FRT sites located on separate plasmids resulting in the formation of heterodimeric or higher order multimeric plasmids. In addition to FRT sites originally isolated from the yeast 2-mu-m plasmid, a number of synthetic FRT sites were also used. The synthetic sites were fully functional as target sites for recombination and gave results similar to those derived from the yeast 2-mu-m plasmid. This successful demonstration of yeast FLP recombinase activity in the mosquito embryo suggests a possible future application of this system in establishing transformed lines of mosquitoes for use in vector control strategies and basic studies.