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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Rapid turnover of pathogen-blocking Wolbachia and their incompatibility loci

Dylan Shropshire, William R. Conner, Daniel Vanderpool, Ary A. Hoffmann, Michael Turelli, Brandon S. Cooper,  bioRxiv,  2023.
At least half of all insect species carry maternally inherited Wolbachia alphaproteobacteria, making Wolbachia the most common endosymbionts in nature. Wolbachia spread to high frequencies is often due to cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI), a Wolbachia-induced sperm modification ...
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Homing-based gene drives can introgress rapidly into local genetic backgrounds with minimal chromosomal conversion in Anopheles gambiae

Tony Nolan, Poppy Pescod, Giulia Bevivino et al.,  Research Square,  2023.
CRISPR-Cas9 gene drive control strategies use a homing selfish genetic element which induces a double-stranded break at the target site and is copied into the opposing chromosome, breaking an essential gene and ensuring super-Mendelian inheritance. During the copying process SNPs ...
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Germline transformation of the West Nile Virus and avian malaria vector Culex quinquefasciatus Say using the piggyBac transposon system

Katherine Nevard, Rajdeep Kaur, Tim Harvey-Samuel,  bioRxiv,  2023.
Culex quinquefasciatus Say is a mosquito which acts as a vector for numerous diseases including West Nile Virus, lymphatic filariasis and avian malaria, over a broad geographical range. As the effectiveness of insecticidal mosquito control methods declines, the need has grown to ...
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A homing rescue gene drive with multiplexed gRNAs reaches high frequency in cage populations but generates functional resistance

Jingheng Chen, Shibo Hou, Ruobing Feng, Xuejiao Xu, Nan Liang, Jackson Champer,  bioRxiv,  2023.
CRISPR homing gene drive is a potent technology with considerable potential for managing populations of medically and agriculturally significant insects. It induces a bias in the inheritance of the drive allele in progeny, rapidly spreading desired genes throughout the ...
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Rescue by gene swamping as a gene drive deployment strategy

Keith D. Harris, Gili Greenbaum,  Cell Reports,  42. 2023.
Gene drives are genetic constructs that can spread deleterious alleles with potential application to population suppression of harmful species. As gene drives can potentially spill over to other populations or species, control measures and fail-safe strategies must be considered. ...
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Reduced dengue incidence following city-wide wMel Wolbachia mosquito releases throughout three Colombian cities: Interrupted time series analysis and a prospective case-control study

Velez ID, Tanamas SK, Arbelaez MP, Kutcher SC, Duque SL, Uribe A, et al.,  PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases,  2023.
The introduction of Wolbachia (wMel strain) into Aedes aegypti mosquitoes reduces their capacity to transmit dengue and other arboviruses. Randomised and non-randomised studies in multiple countries have shown significant reductions in dengue incidence following field ...
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Large-scale releases and establishment of wMel Wolbachia in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes throughout the Cities of Bello, Medellín and Itagüí, Colombia

Velez ID, Uribe A, Barajas J, Uribe S, Ángel S, Suaza-Vasco JD, et al.,  PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases,  2023.
The wMel strain of Wolbachia has been successfully introduced into Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and has been shown to reduce the transmission of dengue and other Aedes-borne viruses. Here we report the entomological results from phased, large-scale releases ...
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Modelling and analysis of periodic impulsive releases of the Nilaparvata lugens infected with wStri-Wolbachia

Xiangjun Dai, Qi Quan & Jianjun Jiao,  Journal of Biological Dynamics,  17:1. 2023.
In this paper, we formulate a population suppression model and a population replacement model with periodic impulsive releases of Nilaparvata lugens infected with wStri. The conditions for the stability of wild-N.lugens -eradication periodic solution of two systems are obtained ...
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Food for thought: Assessing the consumer welfare impacts of deploying irreversible, landscape-scale biotechnologies

Michael S. Jones, Zachary S. Brown,  Food Policy,  121. 2023.
Genetically engineered insects have gained attention as regionally deployed pest control technologies, with substantial applications in agriculture for combatting intractable crop pests and diseases. One potential tool is a ‘gene drive’, using CRISPR-based gene editing. In ...
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Manipulating the Destiny of Wild Populations Using CRISPR

Raban R, Marshall JM, Hay BA, Akbari OS.,  Annual Reviews,  57:361-390. 2023.
Genetic biocontrol aims to suppress or modify populations of species to protect public health, agriculture, and biodiversity. Advancements in genome engineering technologies have fueled a surge in research in this field, with one gene editing technology, CRISPR, leading the ...
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A framework for identifying fertility gene targets for mammalian pest control

Clark, A. C., Edison, R., Esvelt, K., Kamau, S., Dutoit, L., Champer, J., Champer, S. E., Messer, P. W., Alexander, A., & Gemmell, N. J.,  Molecular Ecology Resources,  00:1–14. 2023.
Fertility-targeted gene drives have been proposed as an ethical genetic approach for managing wild populations of vertebrate pests for public health and conservation benefit. This manuscript introduces a framework to identify and evaluate target gene suitability based on ...
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Anopheles gambiae on remote islands in the Indian Ocean: origins and prospects for malaria elimination by genetic modification of extant populations

Ditter, R.E., Campos, M., Crepeau, M.W. et al.,  Scientific Reports,  13. 2023.
The mosquito Anopheles gambiae s.s. is a primary malaria vector throughout sub-Saharan Africa including the islands of the Comoros archipelago (Anjouan, Grande Comore, Mayotte and Mohéli). These islands are located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel in eastern Africa. ...
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Wolbachia Transinfection Via Embryonic Microinjection

Zhang, M., Xi, Z.,  Methods in Molecular Biology,  2739. 2023.
The process of transferring Wolbachia from one species to another to establish a stable, maternally inherited infection in the target species is known as transinfection. The success of transinfection is primarily achieved through embryonic microinjection, which is the most direct ...
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Measuring Host Fitness Effects and Transmission of Wolbachia Strains in Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes

Ross, P.A.,  Methods in Molecular Biology,  2739. 2023.
Lines of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes infected with heritable Wolbachia bacteria are being developed and released for arbovirus control. Coordinated releases of lab-reared Wolbachia mosquitoes have reduced local disease incidence by spreading virus-blocking Wolbachia strains and by ...
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Procedures for the Detection of Wolbachia-Conferred Antiviral Protection in Drosophila melanogaster

Chrostek, E.,  Methods in Molecular Biology,  2739. 2023.
Spread of Wolbachia infections in host populations may be enhanced by Wolbachia-conferred protection from viral pathogens. Wolbachia-infected Drosophila melanogaster survive the pathogenic effects of positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus infections at a higher rate than the ...
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Use of Drosophila Transgenics to Identify Functions for Symbiont Effectors

Cortez, C.T., Murphy, R.O., Owens, I.M., Beckmann, J.F.,  Methods in Molecular Biology,  2739. 2023.
Wolbachia, one of the most successful and studied insect symbionts, and Drosophila, one of the most understood model insects, can be exploited as complementary tools to unravel mechanisms of insect symbiosis. Although Wolbachia itself cannot be grown axenically as clonal isolates ...
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Different mechanisms of X-ray irradiation-induced male and female sterility in Aedes aegypti

Zhang, H., Trueman, E., Hou, X. et al.,  BMC Biology,  21. 2023.
Aedes aegypti (Ae. aegypti) is the major vector that transmits many diseases including dengue, Zika, and filariasis in tropical and subtropical regions. Due to the growing resistance to chemical-based insecticides, biological control methods have become an emerging direction to ...
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Efficient sex separation by exploiting differential alternative splicing of a dominant marker in Aedes aegypti

Shih-Che Weng, Igor Antoshechkin, Eric Marois, Omar S. Akbari,  PLoS Genetics,  2023.
Only female mosquitoes consume blood giving them the opportunity to transmit deadly human pathogens. Therefore, it is critical to remove females before conducting releases for genetic biocontrol interventions. Here we describe a robust sex-sorting approach termed SEPARATOR ...
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Advances and challenges in synthetic biology for mosquito control

Shih-Che Weng, Reem A. Masri, Omar S. Akbari,  Trends in Parasitology,  2023.
Mosquito-borne illnesses represent a significant global health peril, resulting in approximately one million fatalities annually. West Nile, dengue, Zika, and malaria are continuously expanding their global reach, driven by factors that escalate mosquito populations and pathogen ...
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Repeat mediated excision of gene drive elements for restoring wild-type populations

Pratima R Chennuri, Josef Zapletal, Raquel D Monfardini, Martial Loth Ndeffo-Mbah, Zach N Adelman, Kevin M Myles,  bioRxiv,  2023.
We demonstrate here that single strand annealing (SSA) repair can be co-opted for the precise autocatalytic excision of a drive element. Although SSA is not the predominant form of DNA repair in eukaryotic organisms, we increased the likelihood of its use by engineering direct ...
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