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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A multiplexed, confinable CRISPR/Cas9 gene drive propagates in caged Aedes aegypti populations
Tags: Aedes, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Resistance, Self limitingM. A. E. Anderson, E. Gonzalez, M. P. Edgington, J. X. D. Ang, D.-K. Purusothaman, L. Shackleford, K. Nevard, S. A. N. Verkuijl, T. Harvey-Samuel, P. T. Leftwich, K. Esvelt and L. Alphey, bioRxiv, 2022.08.12.503466. 2022.
Here, we test the regulatory sequences from the Ae. aegypti benign gonial cell neoplasm (bgcn) homolog to express Cas9 in the germline to find an expression timing more conducive to homing. We also created a separate multiplexing (targeting multiple different sites within the ...
Harnessing Wolbachia cytoplasmic incompatibility alleles for confined gene drive: a modeling study
Tags: Cytoplasmic incompatibility, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Modeling, WolbachiaJ. Li and J. Champer, bioRxiv, 2022.08.09.503337. 2022.
By using both mathematical and simulation models, we found that a drive containing CifA and CifB together create a confined drive with a moderate to high introduction threshold. When introduced separately, they act as a self-limiting drive. We observed that the performance of ...
Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus microbiome/virome: new strategies for controlling arboviral transmission?
Tags: Aedes, Dengue, Genetic biocontrol, Other SymbiontsM. Gómez, D. Martinez, M. Muñoz and J. D. Ramírez, Parasites and Vectors, 15:287. 2022.
Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus are the main vectors of highly pathogenic viruses for humans, such as dengue (DENV), chikungunya (CHIKV), and Zika (ZIKV), which cause febrile, hemorrhagic, and neurological diseases and remain a major threat to global public health. The high ...
Reflection on the Challenges, Accomplishments, and New Frontiers of Gene Drives
Tags: Agriculture, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Genetic biocontrol, Other arthropods, Selfish genetic elementsM. Melesse Vergara, J. Labbé and J. Tannous, BioDesign Research, 2022:9853416. 2022.
Ongoing pest and disease outbreaks pose a serious threat to human, crop, and animal lives, emphasizing the need for constantgenetic discoveries that could serve as mitigation strategies. Gene drives are genetic engineering approaches discovered decadesago that may allow quick, ...
Sterility of Cydia pomonella by X ray irradiation as an alternative to gamma radiation for the sterile insect technique
Tags: Genetic biocontrol, Moths, Sterile insect technique (SIT)J.-H. Zhang, N. Li, H.-Y. Zhao, Y.-Q. Wang, X.-Q. Yang and K.-M. Wu, Bulletin of Entomological Research, 2022.
The codling moth Cydia pomonella is a major pest of global significance impacting pome fruits and walnuts. It threatens the apple industry in the Loess Plateau and Bohai Bay in China. Sterile insect technique (SIT) could overcome the limitations set by environmentally compatible ...
Studies on the fitness characteristics of wMel- and wAlbB-introgressed Aedes aegypti (Pud) lines in comparison with wMel- and wAlbB-transinfected Aedes aegypti (Aus) and wild-type Aedes aegypti (Pud) lines
Tags: Aedes, Dengue, Genetic biocontrol, Incompatible insect technique, WolbachiaC. Sadanandane, K. Gunasekaran, D. Panneer, S. K. Subbarao, M. Rahi, B. Vijayakumar, V. Athithan, A. Sakthivel, S. Dinesh and P. Jambulingam, Frontiers in Microbiology, 13:947857. 2022.
Wolbachia, an intracellular maternally transmitted endosymbiont, has been shown to interfere with the replication of dengue virus in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. The Wolbachia-transinfected Ae. aegypti has been currently released in many countries to test its effectiveness in ...
Wolbachia Dynamics in Mosquitoes with Incomplete CI and Imperfect Maternal Transmission by a DDE System
Tags: Aedes, Incompatible insect technique, Modeling, WolbachiaY. Su, B. Zheng and X. Zou, Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, 84:95. 2022.
In this paper, we propose a delay differential equation model to describe the Wolbachia infection dynamics in mosquitoes in which the key factor of cytoplasmic incompactibility (CI) is incorporated in a more natural way than those in the literature. By analyzing the dynamics of ...
A theory of resistance to multiplexed gene drive demonstrates the significant role of weakly deleterious natural genetic variation
Tags: CRISPR, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Modeling, Population suppression, Replicator/site directed nuclease, ResistanceB. S. Khatri and A. Burt, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119:e2200567119. 2022.
CRISPR-based gene drives have the potential for controlling natural populations of disease vectors, such as malaria-carrying mosquitoes in sub-Saharan Africa. If successful, they hold promise of significantly reducing the burden of disease and death from malaria and many other ...
Robust control strategy by the Sterile Insect Technique for reducing epidemiological risk in presence of vector migration
Tags: Genetic biocontrol, Modeling, Sterile insect technique (SIT)P.-A. Bliman and Y. Dumont, Mathematical Biosciences, 350:108856. 2022.
The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) is a promising technique to control mosquitoes, vectors of diseases, like dengue, chikungunya or Zika. However, its application in the field is not easy, and its success hinges upon several constraints, one of them being that the treated area ...
Wolbachia wPip Blocks Zika Virus Transovarial Transmission in Aedes albopictus
Tags: Aedes, Arbovirus, Population modification/replacement, WolbachiaY. Guo, J. Guo, Y. Li, X. Zheng and Y. Wu, Microbiol Spectrum, e0263321. 2022.
Area-wide application of Wolbachia to suppress mosquito populations and their transmitted viruses has achieved success in multiple countries. However, the mass release of Wolbachia-infected male mosquitoes involves a potential risk of accidentally releasing fertile females. In ...
Developing Wolbachia-based disease interventions for an extreme environment
Tags: Aedes, Cytoplasmic incompatibility, Genetic biocontrol, Population modification/replacement, WolbachiaP. A. Ross, S. Elfekih, S. Collier, M. J. Klein, S. S. Lee, M. Dunn, S. Jackson, Y. Zhang, J. K. Axford, X. Gu, M. S. Nasar, P. N. Paradkar, E. A. Taoufik, F. M. Jiggins, A. M. Almalik, M. B. Al-Fageeh and A. A. Hoffmann, bioRxiv, 2022.07.26.501527. 2022.
Aedes aegypti mosquitoes carrying self-spreading, virus-blocking Wolbachia bacteria are being deployed to suppress dengue transmission. However, there are challenges in applying this technology in extreme environments. We introduced two Wolbachia strains into Ae. aegypti from ...
Population replacement gene drive characteristics for malaria elimination in a range of seasonal transmission settings: a modelling study
Tags: Africa, Anopheles, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Malaria, Modeling, Population modification/replacementS. Leung, N. Windbichler, E. A. Wenger, C. A. Bever and P. Selvaraj, Malaria Journal, 21:226. 2022.
BACKGROUND: Gene drives are a genetic engineering method where a suite of genes is inherited at higher than Mendelian rates and has been proposed as a promising new vector control strategy to reinvigorate the fight against malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. METHODS: Using an ...
Non-Mendelian transmission of accessory chromosomes in fungi
Tags: Chromosomal drive, Selfish genetic elements, Transmission distortion, Yeast and FungiJ. Komluski, E. H. Stukenbrock and M. Habig, Chromosome Research, 2022.
Non-Mendelian transmission has been reported for various genetic elements, ranging from small transposons to entire chromosomes. One prime example of such a transmission pattern are B chromosomes in plants and animals. Accessory chromosomes in fungi are similar to B chromosomes ...
Lack of robust evidence for a Wolbachia infection in Anopheles gambiae from Burkina Faso
Tags: Anopheles, Genetic biocontrol, Population modification/replacement, Population suppression, WolbachiaS. P. Sawadogo, D. A. Kabore, E. B. Tibiri, A. Hughes, O. Gnankine, S. Quek, A. Diabaté, H. Ranson, G. L. Hughes and R. K. Dabiré, Medical and Veterinary Entomology, 2022.
The endosymbiont Wolbachia can have major effects on the reproductive fitness, and vectorial capacity of host insects and may provide new avenues to control mosquito-borne pathogens. Anopheles gambiae s.l is the major vector of malaria in Africa but the use of Wolbachia in this ...
Operationalizing stakeholder engagement for gene drive research in malaria elimination in Africa-translating guidance into practice
Tags: Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Malaria, Stakeholder engagement, Vector controlL. Pare Toe, B. Dicko, R. Linga, N. Barry, M. Drabo, N. Sykes and D. Thizy, Malaria Journal, 21:225. 2022.
Gene drive mosquitoes are increasingly considered a potential transformational tool for vector control of malaria mosquitoes. As part of efforts to promote responsible research in this field, a number of guidance documents have been published by the World Health Organization, ...
Attempts to use breeding approaches in Aedes aegypti to create lines with distinct and stable relative Wolbachia densities
Tags: Aedes, Cytoplasmic incompatibility, Genetics, Population modification/replacement, WolbachiaA. J. Mejia, L. Jimenez, H. L. C. Dutra, R. Perera and E. A. McGraw, Heredity, 2022.
Wolbachia is an insect endosymbiont being used for biological control in the mosquito Aedes aegypti because it causes cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) and limits viral replication of dengue, chikungunya, and Zika viruses. While the genetic mechanism of pathogen blocking (PB) is ...
Comprehensive characterization of a transgene insertion in a highly repetitive, centromeric region of Anopheles mosquitoes
Tags: Anopheles, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Genetically modified mosquitoesM. Vitale, C. Leo, T. Courty, N. Kranjc, J. B. Connolly, G. Morselli, C. Bamikole, R. E. Haghighat-Khah, F. Bernardini and S. Fuchs, Pathogens and Global Health, 2022.
The availability of the genomic sequence of the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae has in recent years sparked the development of transgenic technologies with the potential to be used as novel vector control tools. These technologies rely on genome editing that confer traits able ...
Development of CRISPR/Cas9-Mediated Gene-Drive Construct Targeting the Phenotypic Gene in Plutella xylostella
Tags: CRISPR, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Moths, Replicator/site directed nucleaseM. Asad, D. Liu, J. Li, J. Chen and G. Yang, Frontiers in Physiology, 13:938621. 2022.
The gene-drive system can ensure that desirable traits are transmitted to the progeny more than the normal Mendelian segregation. The clustered regularly interspersed palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9) mediated gene-drive system has been demonstrated ...
What can we learn from selfish loci that break Mendel’s law?
Tags: Fruit fly, Selfish genetic elements, Transmission distortionS. E. Zanders, PLOS Biology, 20:e3001700. 2022.
Mendel’s law of segregation provides a critical foundation for genetic inquiry It is not, however, without exceptions Historically, 2 such exceptions (sex chromosome linkage and chromosome missegregation in meiosis) were used by Drosophila geneticists to help demonstrate ...
Isolation of rfk-2 (UV) , a mutation that blocks spore killing by Neurospora Spore killer-3
Tags: Selfish genetic elements, Yeast and FungiA. Velazquez, E. Webber, D. O'Neil, T. Hammond and N. Rhoades, MicroPublication Biology, 2022.
Neurospora Spore killer-3 ( Sk-3 ) is a selfish genetic element that kills spores to achieve gene drive. Here, to help identify Sk-3’s killer, we performed a genetic screen for required for killing (rfk) mutations (see methods). The genetic screen uses Sk‑3 rskΔ × SkS ...
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