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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California Residents’ Perceptions of Gene Drive Systems to Control Mosquito-Borne Disease
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, North America, Stakeholder engagementC. E. Schairer, C. Triplett, O. S. Akbari and C. S. Bloss, Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 10. 2022.
Scientists developing gene drive mosquitoes for vector control must understand how residents of affected areas regard both the problem of mosquito-borne disease and the potential solutions offered by gene drive. This study represents an experiment in public engagement at an early ...
Wolbachia wAlbB inhibits bluetongue and epizootic hemorrhagic fever viruses in Culicoides midge cells
Tags: Genetic biocontrol, Population modification/replacement, WolbachiaM. L. Matthews, H. O. Covey, B. S. Drolet and C. L. Brelsfoard, Medical and Veterinary Entomology, 2022.
Abstract Culicoides midges are hematophagous insects that transmit arboviruses of veterinary importance. These viruses include bluetongue virus (BTV) and epizootic hemorrhagic fever virus (EHDV). The endosymbiont Wolbachia pipientis Hertig spreads rapidly through insect host ...
No Sting in the Tail for Sterile Bisex Queensland Fruit Fly (Bactrocera tryoni Froggatt) Release Programs
Tags: Fruit fly, Genetic biocontrol, Sterile insect technique (SIT)O. L. Reynolds, D. Collins, B. C. Dominiak and T. Osborne, Insects, 2022.
Global markets do not tolerate the presence of fruit fly (Tephritidae) in horticultural produce. A key method of control for tephritidae pests, is the sterile insect technique (SIT). Several countries release a bisex strain, i.e., males and females, however the sterile male is ...
Rescue by gene swamping as a gene drive deployment strategy
Tags: Biological control, Containment, Evolution, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Modeling, Population genetics/dynamics, Population suppression, Resistance, Risk and safetyK. D. Harris and G. Greenbaum, bioRxiv, 2022.03.08.483503. 2022.
Gene drives are genetic constructs that can spread deleterious alleles with potential application to population suppression of harmful species. Given that a gene drive can potentially spill over to other populations or even other species, control measures and fail-safes ...
Selfish migrants: How a meiotic driver is selected to increase dispersal
Tags: Ecology, Genetic biocontrol, Modeling, Rodents, Transmission distortionJ. N. Runge, H. Kokko and A. K. Lindholm, J Evol Biol, 2022.
Meiotic drivers are selfish genetic elements that manipulate meiosis to increase their transmission to the next generation to the detriment of the rest of the genome. One example is the t haplotype in house mice, which is a naturally occurring meiotic driver with deleterious ...
Gene drives and population persistence vs elimination: The impact of spatial structure and inbreeding at low density
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Genetic biocontrol, Modeling, Mosquitoes, Population suppression, Replicator/site directed nuclease, Y-chromosomeP. J. Beaghton and A. Burt, Theoretical Population Biology, 2022.
Synthetic gene drive constructs are being developed to control disease vectors, invasive species, and other pest species. In a well-mixed random mating population a sufficiently strong gene drive is expected to eliminate a target population, but it is not clear whether the same ...
EVITA Dengue: a cluster-randomized controlled trial to EValuate the efficacy of Wolbachia-InfecTed Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in reducing the incidence of Arboviral infection in Brazil
Tags: Aedes, Dengue, Field trials, Gene drive synthetic, Genetic biocontrol, WolbachiaM. H. Collins, G. E. Potter, M. D. T. Hitchings, E. Butler, M. Wiles, J. K. Kennedy, S. B. Pinto, A. B. M. Teixeira, A. Casanovas-Massana, N. G. Rouphael, G. A. Deye, C. P. Simmons, L. A. Moreira, M. L. Nogueira, D. A. T. Cummings, A. I. Ko, M. M. Teixeir, Trials, 23:185. 2022.
BACKGROUND: Arboviruses transmitted by Aedes aegypti including dengue, Zika, and chikungunya are a major global health problem, with over 2.5 billion at risk for dengue alone. There are no licensed antivirals for these infections, and safe and effective vaccines are not yet ...
Increased biting rate and decreased Wolbachia density in irradiated Aedes mosquitoes
Tags: Aedes, Genetic biocontrol, Incompatible insect technique, Mosquitoes, Sterile insect technique (SIT), WolbachiaR. Moretti, E. Lampazzi, C. Damiani, G. Fabbri, G. Lombardi, C. Pioli, A. Desiderio, A. Serrao and M. Calvitti, Parasites and Vectors, 15:67. 2022.
Releasing considerable numbers of radiation-sterilized males is a promising strategy to suppress mosquito vectors. However, releases may also include small percentages of biting females, which translate to non-negligible numbers when releases are large. Currently, the effects of ...
Regulation of genetically engineered (GE) mosquitoes as a public health tool: a public health ethics analysis
Tags: Dengue, Ethics, Gene drive synthetic, Genetically modified mosquitoes, Governance, Malaria, Policy, RegulationZ. Meghani, Globalization and Health, 18:21. 2022.
In recent years, genetically engineered (GE) mosquitoes have been proposed as a public health measure against the high incidence of mosquito-borne diseases among the poor in regions of the global South. While uncertainties as well as risks for humans and ecosystems are entailed ...
Wolbachia in Aedes koreicus: Rare Detections and Possible Implications
Tags: Aedes, WolbachiaC. Damiani, A. Cappelli, F. Comandatore, F. Montarsi, A. Serrao, A. Michelutti, M. Bertola, M. V. Mancini, I. Ricci, C. Bandi and G. Favia, Insects, 13. 2022.
The emerging distribution of new alien mosquito species was recently described in Europe. In addition to the invasion of Aedes albopictus, several studies have focused on monitoring and controlling other invasive Aedes species, as Aedes koreicus and Aedes japonicus. Considering ...
Evaluation of anti-malaria potency of wild and genetically modified Enterobacter cloacae expressing effector proteins in Anopheles stephensi
Tags: Anopheles, Genetic biocontrol, Malaria, MosquitoesH. Dehghan, S. H. Mosa-Kazemi, B. Yakhchali, N. Maleki-Ravasan, H. Vatandoost and M. A. Oshaghi, Parasites and Vectors, 15:63. 2022.
Malaria is one of the most lethal infectious diseases in tropical and subtropical areas of the world. Paratransgenesis using symbiotic bacteria offers a sustainable and environmentally friendly strategy to combat this disease. In the study reported here, we evaluated the ...
Considerations for homology-based DNA repair in mosquitoes: Impact of sequence heterology and donor template source
Tags: Aedes, CRISPR, Gene drive synthetic, Genetic biocontrol, Replicator/site directed nucleaseJ. X. D. Ang, K. Nevard, R. Ireland, D.-K. Purusothaman, S. A. N. Verkuijl, L. Shackleford, E. Gonzalez, M. A. E. Anderson and L. Alphey, PLOS Genetics, 18:e1010060. 2022.
Author summary The field of genetic control of mosquito vectors has progressed rapidly in recent years, especially in Cas9-based control systems, due to its robustness to elicit a species-specific and dispersive control of mosquito population. To generate a Cas9-based ...
Gene drive mosquitoes can aid malaria elimination by retarding Plasmodium sporogonic development
Tags: Anopheles, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Malaria, Mosquitoes, Population modification/replacementA. Hoermann, T. Habtewold, P. Selvaraj, G. Del Corsano, P. Capriotti, M. G. Inghilterra, K. M. Temesgen, G. K. Christophides and N. Windbichler, bioRxiv, 2022.02.15.480588. 2022.
Gene drives hold promise for the genetic control of malaria vectors. The development of vector population modification strategies hinges on the availability of effector mechanisms impeding parasite development in transgenic mosquitoes. We augmented a midgut gene of the malaria ...
An Ethical Overview of the CRISPR-Based Elimination of Anopheles gambiae to Combat Malaria
Tags: Anopheles, Ethics, Gene drive synthetic, Population suppression, RegulationI. J. Wise and P. Borry, Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 2022.
Approximately a quarter of a billion people around the world suffer from malaria each year. Most cases are located in sub-Saharan Africa where Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes are the principal vectors of this public health problem. With the use of CRISPR-based gene drives, the ...
A-to-I mRNA editing controls spore death induced by a fungal meiotic drive gene in homologous and heterologous expression systems
Tags: Toxin-antidote, Transmission distortion, Yeast and FungiJ. M. Lohmar, N. A. Rhoades, T. N. Patel, R. H. Proctor, T. M. Hammond and D. W. Brown, Genetics, 2022.
Spore killers are meiotic drive elements that can block development of sexual spores in fungi. In the maize ear rot and mycotoxin-producing fungus Fusarium verticillioides, a spore killer called SkK has been mapped to a 102-kb interval of chromosome V. Here, we show that a gene ...
A preliminary framework for understanding the governance of novel environmental technologies: Ambiguity, indeterminateness and drift
Tags: Ethics, Gene drive synthetic, Governance, Policy, Risk assessmentF. Rabitz, M. Feist, M. Honegger, J. Horton, S. Jinnah and J. Reynolds, Earth System Governance, 12:100134. 2022.
We propose a conceptual framework to explain why some technologies are more difficult to govern than others in global environmental governance. We start from the observation that some technologies pose transboundary environmental risks, some provide capacities for managing such ...
Hoisted with his own petard: how sex-ratio meiotic drive in Drosophila affnis creates resistance alleles that limit its spread
Tags: Fruit fly, Resistance, Sex distorter, Transmission distortionW.-J. Ma, K. B. Patch, E. M. Knoles, M. M. Shoaib and R. L. Unckless, bioRxiv, 2022.02.14.480432. 2022.
Meiotic drivers are selfish genetic elements that tinker with gameto-genesis to bias their own transmission into the next generation of off-spring. Such tinkering can have significant consequences on gameto-genesis and end up hampering the spread of the driver. In Drosophila ...
Wolbachia Impacts Anaplasma Infection in Ixodes scapularis Tick Cells
Tags: Arbovirus, Other arthropods, Other Symbionts, WolbachiaK. M. Skinner, J. Underwood, A. Ghosh, A. S. Oliva Chavez and C. L. Brelsfoard, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19. 2022.
The specific interactions of members of tick bacterial microbiota and their effects on pathogen transmission remains relatively unexplored. Here, we introduced a novel Wolbachia infection type into Ixodes scapularis tick cells and examined the antipathogenic effects on the ...
A Closing Window of Opportunity for Gene Drive Governance in the United States
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Governance, Oxitec, Population suppression, RegulationK. L. Warmbrod, M. Montague and G. K. Gronvall, Health Security, 20:3-5. 2022.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought forth a number of biotechnological advances to enhance the public's health: new diagnostic tests, mRNA vaccines, and new antiviral medications. Biotechnology is also being used to address global challenges like climate change, food insecurity, ...
Uniqueness and stability of periodic solutions for an interactive wild and Wolbachia-infected male mosquito model
Tags: Cytoplasmic incompatibility, Incompatible insect technique, Modeling, Population suppression, WolbachiaR. Yan and Q. Sun, Journal of Biological Dynamics, 2022.
We investigate a mosquito population suppression model, which includes the release of Wolbachia-infected males causing incomplete cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI). The model consists of two sub-equations by considering the density-dependent birth rate of wild mosquitoes. By ...

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