Scholarly Literature
This is a database of scholarly literature that concentrates currently on natural and engineered selfish genetic elements (gene drives). The latest are shown here.
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Effectiveness evaluation of mosquito suppression strategies on dengue transmission under changing temperature and precipitation
Tags: Dengue, Field trials, Mosquitoes, Population suppressionKaihui Liu, Shuanghui Fang, Qiong Li, et al., Acta Tropica, 2024.
PSRs: Selfish chromosomes that manipulate reproductive development
Tags: Chromosomal drive, Cytoplasmic incompatibility, WolbachiaXinmi Zhang, Patrick M. Ferree, Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology, 159-160:66-73. 2024.
B chromosomes are intriguing “selfish” genetic elements, many of which exhibit higher-than-Mendelian transmission. This perspective highlights a group of B chromosomes known as Paternal Sex Ratio chromosomes (PSRs), which are found in several insects with haplo-diploid ...
Un1Cas12f1 and Cas9 gene drive in HSV1: viruses that ‘infect’ viruses
Tags: CRISPR, Gene driveQiaorui Yao, Zhuangjie Lin, Keyuan Lai, Xianying Zeng, Guanxiong Lei, Tongwen Zhang, Hongsheng Dai, bioRxiv, 2024.
Synthetic CRISPR-Cas9 gene drive has been developed as a potential tool to control harmful species. However, Cas9 gene drive faces high resistance rate and mitigation strategies developed so far are difficult to implement. Furthermore, studying the resistance to gene drive is ...
CRISPR-mediated germline mutagenesis for genetic sterilization of Anopheles gambiae males
Tags: Anopheles, CRISPR, Genetic engineering, Malaria, Mosquitoes, Sterile insect technique (SIT)Smidler, A.L., Marrogi, E., Kauffman, J. et al., Scientific Reports, 14. 2024.
Rapid spread of insecticide resistance among anopheline mosquitoes threatens malaria elimination efforts, necessitating development of alternative vector control technologies. Sterile insect technique (SIT) has been successfully implemented in multiple insect pests to suppress ...
Efficacy of Wolbachia-mediated sterility to reduce the incidence of dengue: a synthetic control study in Singapore
Tags: Field trials, Incompatible insect technique, WolbachiaJue Tao Lim, Somya Bansal*, Chee Seng Chong*, Borame Dickens, Youming Ng, Lu Deng, Caleb Lee, Li Yun Tan, Grace Chain, Pei Ma, Shuzhen Sim, Cheong Huat Tan, Alex R Cook, Lee Ching Ng, The Lancet Microbe, 2024.
Our study comprised an at-risk population of 607 872 individuals living in intervention sites and 3 894 544 individuals living in control sites. Interventions demonstrated up to 77·28% (121/156, 95% CI 75·81–78·58) intervention efficacy despite incomplete coverage ...
Acetylcholine esterase of Drosophila melanogaster: a laboratory model to explore insecticide susceptibility gene drives
Tags: Fruit fly, Gene driveHernandes, N., Qi, X.M., Bhide, S., Brown, C., Camm, B.J., Baxter, S.W. and Robin, C., Pest Management Science, 2024.
One of the proposed applications of gene drives has been to revert pesticide resistant mutations back to the ancestral susceptible state. Insecticides that have become ineffective because of the rise of resistance could have reinvigorated utility and be used to suppress pest ...
Introduction of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes carrying wAlbB Wolbachia sharply decreases dengue incidence in disease hotspots
Tags: Aedes, Population modification/replacement, WolbachiaAA Hoffmann, NW Ahmad, WM Keong, CY Ling, NA Ahmad, N. Golding, N. Tierney, J. Jelip, PW Putit, N Mohktar, SS Sandhu, LS Ming, et al., iScience, 2024.
Partial replacement of resident Aedes aegypti mosquitoes with introduced mosquitoes carrying certain strains of inherited Wolbachia symbionts can result in transmission blocking of dengue and other viruses of public health importance. Wolbachia strain wAlbB is an effective ...
Genome editing in pests: basic science to applications
Tags: CRISPR, Gene editing, Genetic biocontrol, ResistanceChen, X., Palli, S.R., Journal of Pest Science, 2024.
Recent developments in sequencing technologies produced enormous data on gene sequences and the identity of genes in many pest insects and disease vectors. However, the function of many of these genes is unknown. Functional genomics studies to uncover gene function in pest ...
Deep orange gene editing triggers temperature-sensitive lethal phenotypes in Ceratitis capitata
Tags: Fruit fly, Sterile insect technique (SIT)Sollazzo, G., Nikolouli, K., Gouvi, G. et al., BMC Biotechnology, 24. 2024.
The Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata, is a significant agricultural pest managed through area-wide integrated pest management (AW-IPM) including a sterile insect technique (SIT) component. Male-only releases increase the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of SIT ...
Meiotic drive against chromosome fusions in butterfly hybrids
Tags: Transmission distortionJesper Boman, Christer Wiklund, Roger Vila, Niclas Backström, bioRxiv, 2024.
Species frequently differ in karyotype, but heterokaryotypic individuals may suffer from reduced fitness. Chromosomal rearrangements like fissions and fusions can thus serve as a mechanism for speciation between incipient lineages but their evolution poses a paradox. How does ...
Intra-lineage microevolution of Wolbachia leads to the emergence of new cytoplasmic incompatibility patterns
Tags: Arbovirus, Malaria, WolbachiaNamias A, Ngaku A, Makoundou P, Unal S, Sicard M, Weill M, PLoS Biology, 2024.
Mosquitoes of the Culex pipiens complex are worldwide vectors of arbovirus, filarial nematodes, and avian malaria agents. In these hosts, the endosymbiotic bacteria Wolbachia induce cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI), i.e., reduced embryo viability in so-called incompatible ...
Transgenic expression of cif genes from Wolbachia strain wAlbB recapitulates cytoplasmic incompatibility in Aedes aegypti
Tags: Gene editingMcNamara, C.J., Ant, T.H., Harvey-Samuel, T. et al., Nature Communications, 15. 2024.
The endosymbiotic bacteria Wolbachia can invade insect populations by modifying host reproduction through cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI), an effect that results in embryonic lethality when Wolbachia-carrying males mate with Wolbachia-free females. Here we describe a transgenic ...
Transforming malaria prevention and control: the prospects and challenges of gene drive technology for mosquito management
Tags: CRISPR, Gene driveYusuf Amuda Tajudeen, Habeebullah Jayeola Oladipo, Iyiola Olatunji Oladunjoye, Muhammad Kamaldeen Oladipo, Hameedat Damilola Shittu, Imam-Fulani Abdulmumeen, Abdullateef Opeyemi Afolabi and Mona Said El-Sherbini, Annals of Medicine, 55. 2024.
In the era of insecticides and anti-malarial drug resistance, gene drive technology holds considerable promise for malaria control. Gene drive technology deploys genetic modifications into mosquito populations to impede their ability to transmit the malaria parasite. This can be ...
A multiplexed, confinable CRISPR/Cas9 gene drive can propagate in caged Aedes aegypti populations
Tags: Aedes, CRISPR, Gene editing, Synthetic biologyAnderson, M.A.E., Gonzalez, E., Edgington, M.P. et al., Nature Communications, 15. 2024.
Aedes aegypti is the main vector of several major pathogens including dengue, Zika and chikungunya viruses. Classical mosquito control strategies utilizing insecticides are threatened by rising resistance. This has stimulated interest in new genetic systems such as gene ...
Evidence of Differences in Cellular Regulation of Wolbachia-Mediated Viral Inhibition between Alphaviruses and Flaviviruses
Tags: WolbachiaRainey SM, Lefteri DA, Darby C, Kohl A, Merits A, Sinkins SP., Viruses, 16(1):115. 2024.
The intracellular bacterium Wolbachia is increasingly being utilised in control programs to limit the spread of arboviruses by Aedes mosquitoes. Achieving a better understanding of how Wolbachia strains can reduce viral replication/spread could be important for the long-term ...
Stakeholder engagement in the development of genetically modified mosquitoes for malaria control in West Africa: lessons learned from 10 years of Target Malaria’s work in Mali
Tags: Stakeholder engagement, Vector controlBakara Dicko, Souleymane Kodio, Hatouma Samoura, Fatoumata Traoré, Naima Sykes, Mouhamed Drabo, Delphine Thizy, Isabelle Coche, Benjamin Robinson, Kadiatou Sanogo, Bilkissou Yagouré, Samba Diop, Mamadou B. Coulibaly, Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 11. 2024.
From 2012 to 2023, the Malaria Research and Training Center (MRTC), based out of the University of Sciences, Techniques and Technologies of Bamako (USTTB), was part of the Target Malaria research consortium working towards developing novel gene drive-based tools for controlling ...
The haplolethal gene wupA of Drosophila exhibits potential as a target for an X-poisoning gene drive
Tags: Fruit fly, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Population suppression, Sex distorter, X chromosomeClancy D. Lawler, Ana Karla Parra Nuñez, Natalia Hernandes, Soumitra Bhide, Isabelle Lohrey, Simon Baxter, Charles Robin, bioRxiv, 2024.
A synthetic gene drive that targets haplolethal genes on the X-chromosome can skew the sex ratio towards males. Like an ‘X-shredder’ it does not involve ‘homing’ and that has advantages including the reduction of gene drive resistance allele formation. We examine this ...
A bumpy road ahead for genetic biocontainment
Tags: Policy, Synthetic biologyGeorge, D.R., Danciu, M., Davenport, P.W. et al, Nature Communications, 2024.
The environmental release of bioengineered organisms is increasingly being suggested for a variety of applications, including bioremediation, biosequestration, bio-mining, environmental biosensing and conservation. The objectives of many environmental release applications shift ...
The epidemiology of imported and locally-acquired dengue in Australia, 2012–2022
Tags: Dengue, Mosquitoes, Oceania, WolbachiaAsma Sohail, Katherine L Anders, Sarah L McGuinness, Karin Leder, Journal of Travel Medicine, 2024.
Dengue is the most important arboviral disease globally, and poses ongoing challenges for control including in non-endemic countries with competent mosquito vectors at risk of local transmission through imported cases. We examined recent epidemiological trends in imported and ...
Recombinant venom proteins in insect seminal fluid reduces female lifespan
Tags: Genetic biocontrol, ResistanceSamuel J. Beach, Maciej Maselko, bioRxiv, 2024.
The emergence of insecticide resistance has increased the need for alternative pest management tools1,2 Numerous genetic biocontrol approaches, which involve the release of genetically modified organisms to control pest populations, are in various stages of development to provide ...

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