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.
Disclaimer>

Use of Insect Promoters in Genetic Engineering to Control Mosquito-Borne Diseases

Tags: , ,
V. Bottino-Rojas and A. A. James,  Biomolecules,  13. 2022.
Mosquito transgenesis and gene-drive technologies provide the basis for developing promising new tools for vector-borne disease prevention by either suppressing wild mosquito populations or reducing their capacity from transmitting pathogens. Many studies of the regulatory DNA ...

Genes drive organisms and slippery slopes

Tags: , , ,
D. B. Resnik, R. F. Medina, F. Gould, G. Church and J. Kuzma,  Pathog Glob Health,  2022.
The bioethical debate about using gene drives to alter or eradicate wild populations has focused mostly on issues concerning short-term risk assessment and management, governance and oversight, and public and community engagement, but has not examined big-picture- 'where is this ...

P-element invasions in Drosophila erecta; shed light on the establishment of host control over a transposable element

Tags:
D. Selvaraju, F. Wierzbicki and R. Kofler,  bioRxiv,  2022.12.22.521571. 2022.
To prevent the spread of transposable elements (TEs) hosts have developed sophisticated defence mechanisms. In mammals and invertebrates this defence mechanism operates through piRNAs. It is unclear how piRNA-based defences are established against invading TEs. According to the ...

Gene drive-mediated population elimination for biodiversity conservation. When you come to a fork in the road, take it

Tags: , , , , ,
B. A. Hay and M. Guo,  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,  119:e2218020119. 2022.
How can the ability of t w2 to spread at super-Mendelian frequencies be utilized even if it is unable to directly drive the population to an unfit state? Gierus, Birand, and colleagues proposed placing Cas9 and a gRNA at a neutral position within the t haplotype. In this hybrid ...

Gene editing and agrifood systems

Tags: , , , , , , ,
FAO,  FAO,  2022.
Gene-editing technologies represent a promising new tool for plant and animal breeding in low- and middle-income countries. They enhance precision and efficiency over current breeding methods and could lead to rapid development of improved plant varieties and animal breeds. ...

A Natural Fungal Gene Drive Enacts Killing via DNA Disruption

Tags:
A. S. Urquhart and D. M. Gardiner,  mBio,  e0317322. 2022.
Fungal spore killers are a class of selfish genetic elements that positively bias their own inheritance by killing non-inheriting gametes following meiosis. As killing takes place specifically within the developing fungal ascus, a tissue which is experimentally difficult to ...

Wolbachia endosymbionts manipulate GSC self-renewal and differentiation to enhance host fertility

Tags: , ,
S. L. Russell, J. R. Castillo and W. T. Sullivan,  bioRxiv,  2022.12.15.520626. 2022.
The alphaproteobacterium Wolbachia pipientis infects thousands of arthropod and nematode species worldwide, making it a key target for host biological control. Wolbachia-driven host reproductive manipulations, such as cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI), are often credited for ...

Assessing the efficacy of male Wolbachia-infected mosquito deployments to reduce dengue incidence in Singapore: study protocol for a cluster-randomized controlled trial

Tags: , , ,
J. Ong, S. H. Ho, S. X. H. Soh, Y. Wong, Y. Ng, K. Vasquez, Y. L. Lai, Y. X. Setoh, C. S. Chong, V. Lee, J. C. C. Wong, C. H. Tan, S. Sim, L. C. Ng and J. T. Lim,  Trials,  23:1023. 2022.
The study is designed as a parallel, two-arm, non-blinded cluster-randomized (CR) controlled trial to be conducted in high-rise public housing estates in Singapore, an equatorial city-state. The aim is to determine whether large-scale deployment of male Wolbachia-infected Ae. ...

Exploring the value of a global gene drive project registry

Tags: , , , , ,
R. I. Taitingfong, C. Triplett, V. N. Vásquez, R. M. Rajagopalan, R. Raban, A. Roberts, G. Terradas, B. Baumgartner, C. Emerson, F. Gould, F. Okumu, C. E. Schairer, H. C. Bossin, L. Buchman, K. J. Campbell, A. Clark, J. Delborne, K. Esvelt, J. Fisher, R.,  Nature Biotechnology,  2022.
Recent calls to establish a global project registry before releasing any gene-drive-modified organisms (GDOs) have suggested a registry could be valuable to coordinate research, collect data to monitor and evaluate potential ecological impacts, and facilitate transparent ...

Performance characteristics allow for confinement of a CRISPR toxin-antidote gene drive designed for population suppression

Tags: , , , ,
S. Zhang and J. Champer,  bioRxiv,  2022.12.13.520356. 2022.
Gene drives alleles that can bias their own inheritance are a promising way to engineer populations for control of disease vectors, invasive species, and agricultural pests. Recent advancements in the field have yielded successful examples of powerful suppression type drives and ...

Cell-based analysis reveals that sex-determining gene signals in Ostrinia are pivotally changed by male-killing Wolbachia

Tags: , ,
B. Herran, T. N. Sugimoto, K. Watanabe, S. Imanishi, T. Tsuchida, T. Matsuo, Y. Ishikawa and D. Kageyama,  PNAS Nexus,  pgac293. 2022.
Wolbachia, a maternally transmitted bacterium, shows male-killing, an adaptive phenotype for cytoplasmic elements, in various arthropod species during the early developmental stages. In lepidopteran insects, lethality of males is accounted for by improper dosage compensation in ...

Cryptic recessive lethality of a supergene controlling social organization in ants

Tags:
P. Blacher, O. De Gasperin, G. Grasso, S. Sarton-Lohéac, R. Allemann and M. Chapuisat,  Molecular Ecology,  2022.
Supergenes are clusters of linked loci that control complex phenotypes, such as alternate forms of social organization in ants. Explaining the long-term maintenance of supergenes is challenging, particularly when the derived haplotype lacks homozygous lethality and causes gene ...

S. pombe wtf drivers use dual transcriptional regulation and selective protein exclusion from spores to cause meiotic drive

Tags: , ,
N. L. Nuckolls, A. Nidamangala Srinivasa, A. C. Mok, R. M. Helston, M. A. Bravo Núñez, J. J. Lange, T. J. Gallagher, C. W. Seidel and S. E. Zanders,  PLOS Genetics,  18:e1009847. 2022.
Author summary Genomes are often considered a collection of ‘good’ genes that provide beneficial functions for the organism. From this perspective, disease is thought to arise due to disfunction of ‘good’ genes. For example, infertility can be caused by the failure of a ...

Bioinformatic and literature assessment of toxicity and allergenicity of a CRISPR-Cas9 engineered gene drive to control the human malaria mosquito vector Anopheles gambiae

Tags: , , , , ,
A. Qureshi and J. B. Connolly,  Malaria Journal,  2022.
Population suppression gene drive is currently being evaluated, including via environmental risk assessment (ERA), for malaria vector control. One such gene drive involves the dsxFCRISPRh transgene encoding (i) hCas9 endonuclease, (i) T1 guide RNA (gRNA) targeting the doublesex ...

Tolerance-conferring defensive symbionts and the evolution of parasite virulence

Tags: , , ,
C. A. Smith and B. Ashby,  bioRxiv,  2022.
Defensive symbionts in the host microbiome can confer protection from infection or reduce the harms of being infected by a parasite. Defensive symbionts are therefore promising agents of biocontrol that could be used to control or ameliorate the impact of infectious diseases. ...

Deregulation of Y-linked protamine-like genes in sex chromosome-biased spermatid demise

Tags: , ,
J. I. Park, G. W. Bell and Y. M. Yamashita,  bioRxiv,  2022.
Meiotic drive is a phenomenon wherein a genetic element achieves a higher rate of transmission than dictated by Mendelian segregation (1-3). One proposed mechanism for meiotic drivers to achieve biased transmission is by sabotaging essential processes of gametogenesis (e.g. ...

A mass rearing cost calculator for the control of Culex quinquefasciatus in Hawaiʻi using the incompatible insect technique

Tags: , ,
A. E. Vorsino and Z. Xi,  Parasites and Vectors,  15:453. 2022.
Hawaiʻi’s native forest avifauna is experiencing drastic declines due to climate change-induced increases in temperature encroaching on their upper-elevation montane rainforest refugia. Higher temperatures support greater avian malaria infection rates due to greater densities ...

Meiotic transmission patterns of additional genomic elements in Brachionus asplanchnoidis, a rotifer with intraspecific genome size variation

Tags: , ,
J. Blommaert and C.-P. Stelzer,  Scientific Reports,  12:20900. 2022.
Intraspecific genome size (GS) variation in Eukaryotes is often mediated by additional, nonessential genomic elements. Physically, such additional elements may be represented by supernumerary (B-)chromosomes or by large heterozygous insertions into the regular chromosome set. ...

Determining the landscape of resistance to gene drives in the malaria mosquito

Tags: , , , ,
I. Morianou,  Imperial College London,  2022.
Gene drives are engineered selfish genetic elements with the potential to spread throughout entire insect populations for sustainable vector control. Recently, a gene drive was shown to eliminate caged populations of the malaria mosquito by targeting the highly conserved ...

A comprehensive overview of the existing microbial symbionts in mosquito vectors: An important tool for impairing pathogentransmission

Tags: , , ,
V. Vandana, M. P. Kona, J. Kumar, O. P. Singh and K. C. Pandey,  Experimental Parasitology,  243. 2022.
The emergence of drug-resistant parasites and/or insecticide-resistant mosquito vectors necessitates developing alternative tools that either supplement or replace the conventional malaria control strategies. Trans-infecting the mosquito vector with symbionts that can either ...

« First ‹ Previous 1 23 31 32 33 34 35 43 118 Next › Last »