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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Toward a CRISPR-Cas9-Based Gene Drive in the Diamondback Moth Plutella xylostella
Tags: CRISPR, Gene drive synthetic, Moths, Replicator/site directed nucleaseX. Xu, T. Harvey-Samuel, H. A. Siddiqui, J. X. D. Ang, M. E. Anderson, C. M. Reitmayer, E. Lovett, P. T. Leftwich, M. You and L. Alphey, The CRISPR Journal, 5:224-236. 2022.
Promising to provide powerful genetic control tools, gene drives have been constructed in multiple dipteran insects, yeast, and mice for the purposes of population elimination or modification. However, it remains unclear whether these techniques can be applied to lepidopterans. ...
Overview of paratransgenesis as a strategy to control pathogen transmission by insect vectors
Tags: Gene editing, Genetic biocontrol, Other SymbiontsN. A. Ratcliffe, J. P. Furtado Pacheco, P. Dyson, H. C. Castro, M. S. Gonzalez, P. Azambuja and C. B. Mello, Parasites and Vectors, 15:112. 2022.
This article presents an overview of paratransgenesis as a strategy to control pathogen transmission by insect vectors. It first briefly summarises some of the disease-causing pathogens vectored by insects and emphasises the need for innovative control methods to counter the ...
Comparison of Ground Release and Drone-Mediated Aerial Release of Aedes aegypti Sterile Males in Southern Mexico: Efficacy and Challenges
Tags: Aedes, Genetic biocontrol, Mosquitoes, Sterile insect technique (SIT)C. F. Marina, P. Liedo, J. G. Bond, A. R. Osorio, J. Valle, R. Angulo-Kladt, Y. Gómez-Simuta, I. Fernández-Salas, A. Dor and T. Williams, Insects, 13. 2022.
Sterile males of Aedes aegypti were released once a week for 8 weeks to evaluate the dispersal efficiency of ground and aerial drone release methods in a rural village of 26 Ha in southern Mexico. Indoor and outdoor BG-Sentinel traps were placed in 13–16 houses distributed ...
Genetic Stability and Fitness of Aedes aegypti Red-Eye Genetic Sexing Strains With Pakistani Genomic Background for Sterile Insect Technique Applications
Tags: Aedes, Arbovirus, Dengue, Sterile insect technique (SIT), Vector controlM. Misbah-ul-Haq, D. O. Carvalho, L. D. de la Fuente, A. A. Augustinos and K. Bourtzis, Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 10. 2022.
The mosquito species Aedes aegypti is the primary transmitter of viruses that cause endemic diseases like dengue in Pakistan. It is also a cause of other vector-borne diseases like yellow fever, Zika fever, and chikungunya, which significantly impact human health worldwide. In ...
Prescribing engagement in environmental risk assessment for gene drive technology
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Governance, Risk assessment, Stakeholder engagementS. Hartley, A. Kokotovich and C. McCalman, Regulation and Governance, 2022.
Abstract Gene drive technology is a nascent biotechnology with the potential to purposefully alter or eliminate a species. There have been broad calls for engagement to inform gene drive governance. Over the past seven years, the gene drive community has been developing risk ...
Mathematical modelling to assess the feasibility of Wolbachia in malaria vector biocontrol
Tags: Anopheles, Modeling, Other Symbionts, WolbachiaS. Andreychuk and L. Yakob, Journal of Theoretical Biology, 542. 2022.
Releasing mosquitoes transinfected with the endosymbiotic bacterium Wolbachia is a novel strategy for interrupting vector-borne pathogen transmission. Following its success in controlling arboviruses spread by Aedes aegypti, this technology is being adapted for anopheline malaria ...
Finding the strongest gene drive: Simulations reveal unexpected performance differences between Anopheles homing suppression drive candidates
Tags: Anopheles, Gene drive synthetic, Modeling, Population suppression, Replicator/site directed nuclease, X chromosomeS. E. Champer, I. K. Kim, A. G. Clark, P. W. Messer and J. Champer, bioRxiv, 2022.03.28.486009. 2022.
Recent experiments have produced several Anopheles gambiae homing gene drives that disrupt female fertility genes, thereby eventually inducing population collapse. Such drives may be highly effective tools to combat malaria. One such homing drive, based on the zpg promoter ...
Cytoplasmic incompatibility: A Wolbachia toxin–antidote mechanism comes into view
Tags: Cytoplasmic incompatibility, Genetic biocontrol, Toxin-antidote, WolbachiaM. Hochstrasser, Current Biology, 32:R287-R289. 2022.
The Wolbachia cidA and cidB genes promote bacterial endosymbiont inheritance through the host female germline. CidB is now shown to load into maturing sperm nuclei. Following fertilization, it disrupts paternal chromosome condensation, triggering embryonic arrest if not countered ...
B-A Chromosome Translocations Possessing an A Centromere Partly Overcome the Root-Restricted Process of Chromosome Elimination in Aegilops speltoides
Tags: Agriculture, Chromosomal drive, Selfish genetic elementsD. Li, A. Ruban, J. Fuchs, H. Kang and A. Houben, Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, 10. 2022.
Some eukaryotes exhibit dramatic genome size differences between cells of different organs, resulting from the programmed elimination of chromosomes. Aegilops speltoides is an annual diploid species from the Poaceae family, with a maximum number of eight B chromosomes (Bs) in ...
Field Suppression of Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) (Drosophila suzukii Matsumura) Using the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT)
Tags: Fruit fly, Genetic biocontrol, Sterile insect technique (SIT)R. A. Homem, Z. Mateos-Fierro, R. Jones, D. Gilbert, A. R. McKemey, G. Slade and M. T. Fountain, Insects, 13. 2022.
Drosophila suzukii (spotted wing drosophila—SWD) is an economically important pest of soft and stone fruit worldwide. Control relies on broad-spectrum insecticides, which are neither fully effective nor environmentally sustainable. The sterile insect technique (SIT) is a ...
Evolution of eukaryotic centromeres by drive and suppression of selfish genetic elements
Tags: Genetic incompatibilities, Selfish genetic elements, Transmission distortionT. Kumon and M. A. Lampson, Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology, 2022.
Despite the universal requirement for faithful chromosome segregation, eukaryotic centromeres are rapidly evolving. It is hypothesized that rapid centromere evolution represents an evolutionary arms race between selfish genetic elements that drive, or propagate at the expense of ...
Opening up, closing down, or leaving ajar? How applications are used in engaging with publics about gene drive
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Policy, Stakeholder engagementA. W. Russell, A. Stelmach, S. Hartley, L. Carter and S. Raman, Journal of Responsible Innovation, 2022.
Public engagement and responsible innovation are strongly emphasised in gene drive research, together with the goal of addressing societal challenges, notably, malaria and environmental conservation. We aim to explore whether public engagement is used to ‘open up' or ‘close ...
CRISPR-mediated knockout of cardinal and cinnabar eye pigmentation genes in the western tarnished plant bug
Tags: Agriculture, CRISPR, Gene drive syntheticC. C. Heu, R. J. Gross, K. P. Le, D. M. LeRoy, B. Fan, J. J. Hull, C. S. Brent and J. A. Fabrick, Scientific Reports, 12. 2022.
The western tarnished plant bug, Lygus hesperus, is a key hemipteran pest of numerous agricultural, horticultural, and industrial crops in the western United States and Mexico. A lack of genetic tools in L. hesperus hinders progress in functional genomics and in developing ...
An agent-based model to simulate the boosted Sterile Insect Technique for fruit fly management
Tags: Sterile insect technique (SIT)E. G. Diouf, T. Brévault, S. Ndiaye, E. Faye, A. Chailleux, P. Diatta and C. Piou, Ecological Modelling, 468:109951. 2022.
The sterile insect technique (SIT) is a method of biological control of pests and disease vector insects. It includes mass-rearing and release of sterile males of the target species so that wild females mated with sterile males would not produce offspring. An innovative version ...
Symbionts and gene drive: two strategies to combat vector-borne disease
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Genetic biocontrol, Other Symbionts, Population modification/replacement, Population suppression, WolbachiaG.-H. Wang, J. Du, C. Y. Chu, M. Madhav, G. L. Hughes and J. Champer, Trends in Genetics, 2022.
Mosquitoes bring global health problems by transmitting parasites and viruses such as malaria and dengue. Unfortunately, current insecticide-based control strategies are only moderately effective because of high cost and resistance. Thus, scalable, sustainable, and cost-effective ...
Differential viral RNA methylation contributes to pathogen blocking in Wolbachia-colonized arthropods
Tags: Aedes, Arbovirus, Genetic biocontrol, Population modification/replacement, WolbachiaT. Bhattacharya, L. Yan, J. M. Crawford, H. Zaher, I. L. G. Newton and R. W. Hardy, PLoS Pathogens, 18:e1010393. 2022.
Arthropod endosymbiont Wolbachia pipientis is part of a global biocontrol strategy to reduce the replication of mosquito-borne RNA viruses such as alphaviruses. We previously demonstrated the importance of a host cytosine methyltransferase, DNMT2, in Drosophila and viral RNA as a ...
Could species-focused suppression of Aedes aegypti, the yellow fever mosquito, and Aedes albopictus, the tiger mosquito, affect interacting predators? An evidence synthesis from the literature
Tags: Ecology, Incompatible insect technique, Policy, Regulation, Risk and safety, Sterile insect technique (SIT)J. A. S. Bonds, C. M. Collins and L.-C. Gouagna, Pest Management Science, 2022.
The risks of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus nuisance and vector-borne diseases are rising and the adverse effects of broad-spectrum insecticide application has promoted species-specific techniques, such as sterile insect technique (SIT) and other genetic strategies, as ...
Evaluation of Additional Drosophila suzukii Male-Only Strains Generated Through Remobilization of an FL19 Transgene
Tags: Fruit fly, Genetically modified organisms, Sterile insect technique (SIT)A. Yamamoto, A. K. Yadav and M. J. Scott, Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 10. 2022.
Drosophila suzukii (D. suzukii) (Matsumura, 1931; Diptera: Drosophilidae), also known as spotted wing Drosophila, is a worldwide pest of fruits with soft skins such as blueberries and cherries. Originally from Asia, D. suzukii is now present in the Americas and Europe and has ...
Modelling homing suppression gene drive in haplodiploid organisms
Tags: CRISPR, Gene drive synthetic, Modeling, Replicator/site directed nucleaseY. Liu and J. Champer, bioRxiv, 2021.10.12.464047. 2022.
Gene drives have shown great promise for suppression of pest populations. These engineered alleles can function by a variety of mechanisms, but the most common is the CRISPR homing drive, which converts wild-type alleles to drive alleles in the germline of heterozygotes. Some ...
Combining two Genetic Sexing Strains allows sorting of non-transgenic males for Aedes genetic control
Tags: Aedes, Genetic biocontrol, Genetically modified mosquitoes, Sterile insect technique (SIT)C. Lutrat, M. Burckbuchler, R. P. Olmo, R. Beugnon, A. Fontaine, T. Baldet, J. Bouyer and E. Marois, bioRxiv, 2022.03.11.483912. 2022.
Chemical control of the mosquito vectors Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti is costly, unsustainable, and increasingly ineffective due to the spread of insecticide resistance. The Sterile Insect Technique is an autocidal control tactic that represents a valuable alternative but ...

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