CRISPR/Cas9-based heritable targeted mutagenesis in Thermobia domestica: A genetic tool in an apterygote development model of wing evolution

Abstract Despite previous developmental studies on basally branching wingless insects and crustaceans, the evolutionary origin of insect wings remains controversial. Knowledge regarding genetic regulation of tissues hypothesized to have given rise to wings would help to elucidate how ancestral development changed to allow the evolution of true wings. However, genetic tools available for basally branching wingless species are limited. The firebrat Thermobia domestica is an apterygote species, phylogenetically related to winged insects. T. domestica presents a suitable morphology to investigate the origin of wings, as it forms the tergal paranotum, from which wings are hypothesized to have originated. Here we report the first successful CRISPR/Cas9-based germline genome editing in T. domestica. We provide a technological platform to understand the development of tissues hypothesized to have given rise to wings in an insect with a pre-wing evolution body plan.