CRISPR Gene Drives: A Weapon of Mass Destruction?

Gene drives allow scientists to “drive” new genes — and their associated traits — into wildlife populations at unprecedented rates. Here’s a simplified explanation of how gene drives work. In normal sexual reproduction between species with two copies of chromosomes, each gene has a 50% chance of being inherited. However, there are particular DNA sequences called “selfish genes” whose frequency in the genome increases with each generation, even if this doesn’t result in an evolutionary advantage for the offspring. In 2003, biologist Austin Burt proposed a new way to use selfish genes to spread traits more efficiently through a population and ensure that offspring have a 100% probability of inheriting a particular DNA segment.

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