About the Authors

Marco Salvemini

marco.salvemini@unina.it

Affiliation Department of Biological Sciences – Section of Genetics and Molecular Biology, University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

Rocco D'Amato

Affiliation Department of Biological Sciences – Section of Genetics and Molecular Biology, University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

Valeria Petrella

Affiliation Department of Biological Sciences – Section of Genetics and Molecular Biology, University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

Serena Aceto

Affiliation Department of Biological Sciences – Section of Genetics and Molecular Biology, University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

Derric Nimmo

Affiliation Oxitec Limited, Oxford, United Kingdom

Marco Neira

Affiliation Oxitec Limited, Oxford, United Kingdom

Luke Alphey

Affiliations Oxitec Limited, Oxford, United Kingdom, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

Lino C. Polito

Affiliation Department of Biological Sciences – Section of Genetics and Molecular Biology, University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

Giuseppe Saccone

Affiliation Department of Biological Sciences – Section of Genetics and Molecular Biology, University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

Competing Interests

The authors Derric Nimmo, Marco Neira and Luke Alphey are employees of Oxitec Ltd. and have employment and equity interest in Oxitec. Oxitec and the University of Naples “Federico II” hold intellectual property related to the subject matter of this paper. All other authors declare no interest. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Designed research: MS GS. Performed the molecular cloning experiments, the developmental expression analyses and in silico analyses: MS. Performed Sa. cyaneus cloning experiments and helped with molecular biology experiments: RD. Performed Ae. aegypti intron analysis and helped with molecular biology experiments: VP. Performed phylogenetic and molecular evolutionary analyses: SA. Helped with molecular biology experiments: DN MN. Analyzed and discussed data: MS RD VP SA DN MN LA LCP GS. Read and approved the final manuscript: MS RD VP SA DN MN LA LCP GS. Wrote the paper: MS SA LA GS.