MARINER TRANSPOSITION AND TRANSFORMATION OF THE YELLOW-FEVER MOSQUITO, AEDES-AEGYPTI

The mariner transposable element is capable of interplasmid transposit ion in the embryonic soma of the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti. To determine if this demonstrated mobility could be utilized to genet ically transform the mosquito, a modified mariner element marked with a wild type allele of the Drosophila melanogaster cinnabar gene was mi croinjected into embryos of a kynurenine hydroxylase-deficient, white- eyed recipient strain, Three of 69 fertile male founders resulting fro m the microinjected embryos produced families with colored-eyed progen y individuals, a transformation rate of 4%. Tile transgene-mediated co mplementation of eve color was observed to segregate in a Mendelian ma nner, although one insertion segregates with the recessive allele (fem ale-determining) of the sex-determining locus, and a separate insertio n is homozygous lethal, Molecular analysis of selected transformed fam ilies demonstrated that a single complete copy of the construct had in tegrated independently in each case acid that it had done so in a tran sposase-mediated manner, The availability of a mariner transformation system greatly enhances our ability to study and manipulate this impor tant vector species.