Heritable CRISPR Mutagenesis of Essential Maternal Effect Genes as a Simple Tool for Sustained Population Suppression of Invasive Species in a Zebrafish Model

Invasive species control is important for ecological and agricultural management. Genetic methods can provide species specificity for population control. We developed heritable maternal effect embryo lethality (HMEL), a novel strategy allowing negative population pressure from HMEL individuals to be transmitted within a population across generations. We demonstrate the HMEL technique in zebrafish through genome-integrated CRISPR/Cas targeted mutagenic disruption of