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Engineering sex-specific sterility is critical for developing transgene-based sterile insect technology.Targeted genome engineering achieved by customized zinc-finger nuclease,transcription activator-like effector nuclease(TALEN)or clustered,regularly interspaced,short palindromic repeats/Cas9 systems has been exploited extensively in a variety of model organisms; however,screening mutated individuals without a detectable phenotype is still challenging.In addition,genetically recessive mutations only detectable in homozygotes make the experiments time consuming.In the present study,we model a novel genetic system in the silkworm,Bombyx mori,that results in female-specific sterility by combining transgenesis with TALEN technologies.This system induces sex-specific sterility at a high efficiency by targeting the female-specific exon of the B.mori doublesex(Bmdsx)gene,which has sex-specific splicing isoforms regulating somatic sexual development.Transgenic animals co-expressing TALEN left and right arms targeting the female-specific Bmdsx exon resulted in somatic mutations and female mutants lost fecundity because of lack of egg storage and abnormal external genitalia.The wild-type sexual dimorphism of abdominal segment was not evident in mutant females.In contrast,there were no deleterious effects in mutant male moths.The current somatic TALEN technologies provide a promising approach for future insect functional genetics,thus providing the basis for the development of attractive genetic alternatives for insect population management.