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Aedes and Anopheles mosquitoes are major vectors of human diseases such as malaria, dengue, chikungunya, Zika and yellow fever. There is a lack of efficient drugs and vaccine for most of these vector-borne infectious diseases and traditional mosquito control methods, mainly based on larval source reduction and insecticides are inefficient. Therefore, new or complementary techniques, such as novel genetic strategies, are urgently needed to combat major mosquito vector species. There are three major types of genetic strategies to achieve vector population suppression: the sterile insect technique (SIT), the incompatible insect technique (IIT), and transgenic approaches. These techniques all rely on male-only releases as female mosquitoes bite and transmit pathogens. However, the lack of efficient and robust sex separation methods presents a major bottleneck to the successful application of these techniques as the currently available sex separation methods are inadequate for safe and bio-secure male-only releases in large scale operational programs [1, 2]. Five years ago, a coordinated research project (CRP) entitled “Exploring genetic molecular, mechanical and behavioural methods of sex separation in mosquitoes” was initiated under the auspices of the Joint Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Kostas Bourtzis, a member of the Insect Pest Control Subprogramme of the FAO/ IAEA, coordinated the project which included 19 scientists with a broad range of expertise from 14 countries, to explore classical genetic, molecular, mechanical, behavioural, developmental and symbiont-based approaches for sex separation in mosquitoes. In the frame of this 5-year CRP project, four meetings were organized during which the participating scientists presented their findings and achievements as well as critically discussed and coordinated their research. This special issue presents, in the form of original and/or review papers, recent achievements in the field of mosquito sex separation, together with a perspective paper which discusses potential future steps. Several review articles present the progress and challenges for the development of genetic sexing strains in Aedes and Anopheles mosquitoes by classical genetics and/or molecular-based approaches. Bernardini et al. [3] review the significant progress achieved during the last few years towards the development of genetic sexing strains using transgenic technologies for the control of Anopheles gambiae, which is a major vector of human malaria. Mashatola et al. [4] discuss various sex separation strategies that have been or are currently explored to develop a robust sex separation method which would allow SIT applications against An. arabiensis including the exploitation of sex-specific behavioural and developmental differences as well as genetic-based approaches such as genetic sexing strains. Haecker & Schetelig [5] present the pros and cons of using transposable elements, site-specific recombination, and genome editing methods in the context of developing genetic sexing strains for mosquito vector control. Araujo et al. [6] report on the need to deeply understand the mechanisms of sex determination in Aedes mosquitoes, which would allow the exploitation of the sex determination pathways to construct male-only strains. * Correspondence: K.Bourtzis@iaea.org Insect Pest Control Laboratory, Joint FAO/IAEA Programme of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, Vienna, Austria Full list of author information is available at the end of the article

parasites and vectors

Joint FAO/IAEA Coordinated Research Project on “Exploring genetic, molecular, mechanical and behavioural methods of sex separation in mosquitoes” – an introduction