Cricket: The third domesticated insect

Taro Mito; Yoshiyasu Ishimaru; Takahito Watanabe; Taro Nakamura; Guillem Ylla; Sumihare Noji; Cassandra G Extavour

doi:10.1016/bs.ctdb.2022.02.003

Cricket: The third domesticated insect

Curr Top Dev Biol. 2022:147:291-306. doi: 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2022.02.003. Epub 2022 Mar 14.

Authors

Taro Mito¹, Yoshiyasu Ishimaru¹, Takahito Watanabe¹, Taro Nakamura², Guillem Ylla³, Sumihare Noji¹, Cassandra G Extavour⁴

Affiliations

¹ Division of Bioscience and Bioindustry, Graduate School of Technology, Industrial and Social Sciences, Tokushima University, Tokushima City, Tokushima, Japan.
² Division of Evolutionary Developmental Biology, National Institute for Basic Biology, Okazaki, Aichi, Japan.
³ Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States; Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Genome Biology, Faculty of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biotechnology, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland.
⁴ Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States; Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD, United States. Electronic address: extavour@oeb.harvard.edu.

PMID: 35337452
DOI: 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2022.02.003

Abstract

Many researchers are using crickets to conduct research on various topics related to development and regeneration in addition to brain function, behavior, and biological clocks, using advanced functional and perturbational technologies such as genome editing. Recently, crickets have also been attracting attention as a food source for the next generation of humans. In addition, crickets are increasingly being used as disease models and biological factories for pharmaceuticals. Cricket research has thus evolved over the last century from use primarily in highly important basic research, to use in a variety of applications and practical uses. These insects are now a state-of-the-art model animal that can be obtained and maintained in large quantities at low cost. We therefore suggest that crickets are useful as a third domesticated insect for scientific research, after honeybees and silkworms, contributing to the achievement of global sustainable development goals.

Keywords: CRISPR; Development; Entomophagy; Gryllus; Orthoptera.

MeSH terms

Animals
Bees
Gryllidae* / genetics
Insecta