Gene Drive in the News
A curated collection of articles from the popular press
Plain language summary: How do we have a public conversation about new technologies for conservation? The possibilities and pitfalls of scientific language
16409Annonymous, Relational Thinking, 2021-02-17 18:30:27.
Having caused a catastrophic decline of animal species, people now look to new technologies to reverse the damage. Gene drive is a potential tool that could increase the proportion of male offspring in rat populations and eventually reduce their overall numbers. Some suggest this tool could eliminate rats from islands, like New Zealand, where rats have a devastating impact on native species. While holding much potential, the New Zealand public has shown hesitation towards genetic tools. In our study, we investigated how four articles, each emphasizing a different aspect of gene drive (i.e., humaneness, pragmatism, decision making, and scientific innovation), impacted opinion towards gene drive alongside people’s emotional responses, biases, and perceived risks towards the tool.
Detailed genome map of malaria vector
16381The Hindu, Aspirant World, 2021-02-14 15:03:12.
In order to engineer advanced forms of defence against malaria transmission, including targeted CRISPR and gene drive–based strategies, scientists require intricate knowledge of the genomes of vector mosquitoes. CRISPR technology is a gene-editing tool which allows researchers to easily alter DNA sequences and modify gene function.They produced a new reference genome for the Asian malaria vector mosquito Anopheles stephensi.
Researchers Unveil Detailed Genome of Invasive Malaria Mosquito
16374M. Aguilera, UC San Diego News Center, 2021-02-11 20:37:12.
Mosquito-transmitted malaria remains the number one worldwide killer among vector-borne diseases, claiming more than 400,000 human lives in 2019. In order to engineer advanced forms of defense against malaria transmission, including targeted CRISPR and gene drive-based strategies, scientists require intricate knowledge of the genomes of vector mosquitoes. Mahul Chakraborty—a project scientist at the University of California, Irvine, working with colleagues at the Tata Institute for Genetics and Society (TIGS) at UC San Diego and India, and the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology in Bangalore, India—has produced a groundbreaking new reference genome for the Asian malaria vector mosquito Anopheles stephensi. Full details of the genome, which the scientists say is now on par with the best animal genomes available to science (humans and fruit flies), are published in the journal BMC Biology.
Projects to target a range of pest control solutions
16366K. McCormack, The Chronicle, 2021-02-10 20:19:28.
With the annual national cost of established vertebrate pest animals estimated to be around $800 million, and over $4 billion for weeds, it’s in Australia’s best interest to try and tackle these pesky problems at their root causes. 19 projects will be funded following a competitive grant process to research and advance breakthrough solutions to control some of Australia’s worst established pest animals and weeds, including fall armyworm and prickly acacia. Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management, David Littleproud, said he was delighted with the high calibre and diversity of projects coming from the popular grant round.
Oxitec gears up for test releases
16386T. O'Hara, Keynews.com, 2021-02-10 15:10:19.
The United Kingdom-based biotech company Oxitec will soon announce the test locations and timetable for releasing its genetically modified mosquitoes in the Florida Keys.
Assisting Evolution: How Far Should We Go to Help Species Adapt?
16369E. Kolbert, YaleEnvironment360, 2021-02-09 20:28:55.
It was a hot, intensely blue day in the Australian Outback, about 350 miles north of Adelaide. I was tagging along with Moseby as she checked the batteries on the motion-sensitive cameras that dot Arid Recovery, an ecosystem restoration project she and her husband launched in 1997. The project sprawls over 47 square miles of red earth and scrub. It’s entirely surrounded by a six-foot-tall fence, which is designed to keep out feral cats and foxes. Inside the main fence is a series of smaller fenced-in paddocks. Several years ago, Moseby decided to start adding cats into some of these. Her reasoning was simple and, in its own way, radical. The outback ecosystem had been so fundamentally changed, that, if the native animals were to survive, they would have to change, too. Perhaps they could be trained to avoid cats, which were introduced to the country by the British colonists and now can be found virtually everywhere in Australia, including most islands.
Number of Project Wolbachia mosquitoes released is constantly reviewed to maintain suppression of dengue: NEA
16388N. L. Ching, today, 2021-02-09 15:12:34.
Project Wolbachia – Singapore has yielded promising results so far.Releases of non-biting male Wolbachia-Aedes mosquitoes have suppressed the urban Aedes aegypti mosquito populations in study sites at Tampines and Yishun by up to 90 per cent, and we have observed 58 to 74 per cent less dengue cases in 2020 in areas where releases have been ongoing for at least a year compared to areas without releases. However, this does not mean that there will be no dengue cases in the study sites, especially in the initial period, because it takes several months for the releases to bring down the dengue mosquito population.While some residents at the release sites have noticed more non-biting mosquitoes around their homes, the released male mosquitoes do not bite, and the overall data shows a clear benefit — fewer dengue cases.
Should we dim the sun? Will we even have a choice
16384E. Klein, New York Times, 2021-02-09 15:06:18.
“Under a White Sky” is going to be on my best books of 2021 list. It’s a wonderful work. Kolbert is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Sixth Extinction,” which you may have read. She is a staff writer at The New Yorker and just one of the great science journalists of this time, and particularly one of the great climate journalists of this age. But this book, this book’s existence is evidence of how badly that fight is going. This is a book about what we are going to need to contemplate in the coming years that we don’t want to. It’s a book about taking responsibility for how irreversibly we have altered the natural world; how often we have tried to control it, and then watched those attempts at control fail; how often the best most scientific minds of the age have come up with some brilliant solution, implemented it, and then watched calamity result. And at the same time — and this is what makes the book so worthwhile — it is a book about how there is no going back. Not now, not ever. We are in the Anthropocene. The future from here is an endless layering on of new efforts to control the consequences of our past efforts. We don’t get to flinch or pretend we don’t have to contemplate any of this. We’ve gone too far. One of the hardest things to do as a writer — and I tell you this from personal experience — is to write ambivalence. It’s easy to write a polemic or a sharp take. It is hard to write down the middle path, where you are simply describing things as they are, knowing that every possible obvious answer you can come to is probably a bad one, knowing that the hubris embedded in past attempts to solve this problem means any future brilliant idea is likely to end that way, too, but that doesn’t mean we can do nothing. But Kolbert walks that path really beautifully here, which is why I wanted to talk to her for the show. As always, my email is [email protected]. I’m always interested to know who you’d like to see on the show. The weirder, the better. So send me your guest suggestions. Here’s Elizabeth Kolbert.
Public attitudes towards synthetic biology
16363CSIRO, Synthetic Biology Future Science Platform, 2021-02-08 20:06:39.
A national survey has been conducted by CSIRO’s Synthetic Biology Future Science Platform as an important first step in measuring public attitudes towards synthetic biology. The survey draws on the views of more than 8,000 Australians, and researchers are examining the data to determine current attitudes to these emerging technologies
Grey squirrels: is birth control the solution to Britain’s invasive species problem?
16275J. Gilchrist, The Conversation, 2021-02-03 17:03:29.
As with the UK’s other invasive species, such as rabbits, signal crayfish and Japanese knotweed, introducing the grey squirrel has proved to be an expensive mistake. Not only do grey squirrels displace red squirrels, they strip bark from trees. A recent report estimated that this could cost commercial forestry and native woodlands £1.1 billion (US$1.5 billion) over the next 40 years, including revenue lost to damaged timber, reduced carbon storage, tree replacement costs and squirrel control. Despite efforts to kill grey squirrels over several decades, their populations remain large and widespread.
Mosquitoes genetically modified to be resistant to Zika
16259Staff, Lab+Life Scientist, 2021-02-02 15:55:50.
Researchers have wrestled with different strategies for controlling the spread of Zika virus, which is transmitted to humans from female mosquito bites. One approach, which has been approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency, will see more than 750 million genetically modified mosquitoes released into the Florida Keys in 2021 and 2022. These ‘suicide mosquitoes’ are genetically altered to produce offspring that die before emerging into adults and therefore cannot bite humans and spread disease.
Experts oppose plan to breed mosquitoes
16279T. Abet, Daily Monitor, 2021-02-01 17:11:29.
Environmentalists have opposed the plan to breed and release genetically modified mosquitoes in the country to curb malaria prevalence. They say the act presents substantial human and environmental health risks. Their objection follows last week’s announcement by scientists at Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) that they have embarked on a series of activities aimed at breeding and releasing genetically modified mosquitoes (GMMs) that could curb malaria transmission.
Les Européens très critiques vis-à-vis du forçage génétique
16231L. Duboua-Lorsch, EURACTIV, 2021-01-29 16:38:41.
Cette technique, qui vise à éradiquer ou modifier certaines espèces dites nuisibles, sera au cœur des négociations cette année, alors que se profile la COP15 sur la biodiversité. maginez un monde débarrassé d’insectes porteurs de maladies, de parasites agricoles, d’espèces envahissantes… Les possibilités semblent infinies avec la nouvelle technique du « gene drive », en français forçage génétique. Née au début des années 2000, cette technique de modification génétique permet à un gène d’être transmis de manière quasi-systématique à ses descendants. En quelques générations seulement, l’ensemble d’une espèce sauvage peut être remplacée par ces nouveaux individus génétiquement forcés.
Project Wolbachia: Residents are killing the ‘helpful’ mosquitoes, which can be a nuisance
16228T. J. Cheng, today, 2021-01-29 16:33:12.
In 2019, Dr Amy Khor, then Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources, said that there was a 90 per cent suppression rate at study sites in Tampines and Yishun from February to November that year. However, certain public housing estates under the project were still dengue hot zones last year.The idea of the project is to have the male Aedes mosquitoes, which are injected with the Wolbachia bacteria, mate with female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. The females then go on to lay eggs that do not hatch, effectively suppressing their numbers.
Genetically modified mosquitoes to curb malaria
16221T. Abet, Daily Monitor, 2021-01-29 16:20:15.
Scientists at Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) have started breeding mosquitoes with the aim of modifying their genetic materials and releasing them to the environment to curb malaria transmission. The genetically modified mosquitoes, according to the scientists, do not transmit malaria parasites when they bite. Dr Jonathan Kayondo, the project lead coordinator at the UVRI, said when the modified male mosquito mates with common mosquitoes, the female off springs are infertile. This, he explained will significantly suppress the population or eliminate mosquitoes thereby stopping malaria transmission and deaths.
New genetically modified mosquitoes to help fight malaria
16216D. Zirimala, Capital Radio FM, 2021-01-29 16:11:15.
According to Dr. Jonathan Kayondo, the principal investigator of the Target Malaria project, the genetically modified mosquitoes do not transmit malaria parasites when they bite. These are made infertile so that when they cross breed with the female anopheles mosquito, they are not able to reproduce. He says with this new research project, they are complimenting the already existing malaria control methods such as insecticides treated mosquito nets, indoor residual spraying and drugs but there is need to get additional tools to help eradicate the disease.
Proceedings of an expert workshop on community agreement for gene drive research in Africa – Co-organised by KEMRI, PAMCA and Target Malaria [version 1; peer review: awaiting peer review]
16224D. Thizy, L. Pare Toe, C. Mbogo, D. Matoke-Muhia, V. P. Alibu, S. K. Barnhill-Dilling, T. Chantler, G. Chongwe, J. Delborne, L. Kapiriri, E. Nassonko Kavuma, S. Koloi-Keaikitse, A. Kormos, K. Littler, D. Lwetoijera, R. Vargas de Moraes, N. Mumba, L. Muten, Gates Open Research, 2021-01-28 16:25:31.
Target Malaria, the Kenya Medical Research Institute and the Pan African Mosquito Control Association co-organised a workshop with researchers and practitioners on this topic to question the model proposed by Target Malaria in its research so far that involved the release of genetically modified sterile male mosquitoes and how this could be adapted to future studies involving gene drive mosquito releases for them to offer reflections about potential best practices. This paper shares the outcomes of that workshop and highlights the remaining topics for discussion before a comprehensive model can be design
RNAi-based products: A sustainable alternative to hazardous pesticides
16211Ghent University, Phys Org, 2021-01-27 13:59:48.
RNAi-based biocontrol is a great alternative to hazardous pesticides and can contribute towards reversing the alarming decline in farmland birds and beneficial insects (especially pollinating ones). RNAi is a well-known natural biological process in most
Genetically-modified mosquitoes key to stopping Zika virus spread
16208University of Missouri, Medical Xpress, 2021-01-26 13:52:44.
Alexander Franz, an associate professor in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine, collaborated with researchers at Colorado State University by using CRISPR gene-editing technology to produce mosquitoes that are unable to replicate Zika virus and therefore cannot infect a human through biting. "We genetically manipulated these mosquitoes by inserting an artificial gene into their genome that triggers one of the immune pathways in the midgut to recognize and destroy the RNA genome of Zika virus," Franz said. "By developing these mosquitoes that are resistant to the virus, the disease cycle is interrupted so transmission to humans can no longer take place." Franz added that the genetic modification is inheritable, so future generations of the altered mosquitoes would be resistant to Zika virus as well.
Into the Wild: GMOs head for the forest
16115L. Sharratt, Sentinel, 2021-01-25 13:49:25.
Genetic engineering is set to leave the farm for the forest. After over twenty years of growing genetically engineered (GE or genetically modified) crop plants in North America, researchers are now proposing to plant GE trees in the forests of eastern US and Canada. This is a precedent-setting request that asks us to accept, even embrace, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the wild. The first genetically engineered forest tree is now being considered for release into the wild. The US Department of Agriculture is now assessing a proposal from university researchers to plant a GE American chestnut tree in forests. The researchers have genetically engineered the tree to tolerate the blight Cryphonectria parasitica that decimated American chestnut populations in Canada and the US in the 1900’s. This GE tree is engineered with a gene from wheat, key to creating the blight-tolerant trait, as well as genetic material from four other species: a plant related to mustard, two different bacteria, and a plant virus. Together, the use of this new genetic material has resulted in the “Darling 58” GE American chestnut tree.
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