Cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera) is one of the most disastrous pests
worldwide, threatening various food crops. Genomic tools may provide
effective ways to manage this pest. The team of Ming$B!>(BHui Jin from Southwest
University in China aimed to test the CRISPR-Cas9 system to induce mutations
for targeted mutagenesis in cotton bollworm.

By injecting a single guide RNA (sgRNA) together with the Cas9 protein, the
team obtained predictable mutations in the cotton bollworm genome. The team
was also successful in generating several types of gene modifications using
different combinations of sgRNA and Cas9 pairs, including mutations in the
HaCad and HaABCC2 genes of the cotton bollworm.

These findings indicated the applicability of CRISPR-Cas9 to the cotton
bollworm. CRISPR presents an efficient tool to engineer genomes of the
insect for its management.

[onlinelibrary.wiley.com]