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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Bioethical issues in genome editing by CRISPR-Cas9 technology
Tags: Ethics, Gene drive, Gene editingF. B. Ayanoglu, A. E. Elcin and Y. M. Elcin, Turkish Journal of Biology, 44:110-120. 2020.
Genome editing technologies have led to fundamental changes in genetic science. Among them, CRISPR-Cas9 technology particularly stands out due to its advantages such as easy handling, high accuracy, and low cost. It has made a quick introduction in fields related to humans, ...
Auditing preparedness for vector control field studies
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Gene editing, Risk assessmentC. M. Collins and M. M. Quinlan, American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 102:707-710. 2020.
The value of baseline entomological data to any future area-wide release campaign relies on the application of consistent methods to produce results comparable across different times and places in a stepwise progression to larger releases. Traditionally, standard operating ...
Engineering a minimal gene drive system for integral replacement in Drosophila melanogaster
Tags: Fruit fly, Gene drive synthetic, Population modification/replacementA. Nash, Imperial College London, 2020.
Gene drives represent a powerful tool for the control of vector-borne diseases. By suppressing or replacing vector populations, laboratory studies have highlighted the potential for this group of tools to make a powerful impact on the burden of zoonotic disease. Current genetic ...
Development of control and sterilization technology for bluegill by genome editing
Tags: Fish, Gene drive synthetic, Genetic biocontrol, Invasive species, Sterile insect technique (SIT)M. A. Madsen, Nippon Suisan Gakkaishi, 86:100-100. 2020.
This article is in Japanese
Male-biased adult production of the striped fruit fly, Zeugodacus scutellata, by feeding dsRNA fpecific to Transformer-2
Tags: Genetic engineering, Sterile insect technique (SIT)M. A. Al Baki, M. Vatanparast and Y. Kim, Insects, 11:211. 2020.
Sterile insect release technique (SIT) is effective for eradicating quarantine insects including various tephritid fruit flies. When SIT is used for fruit flies, it is challenging to remove females from sterile males due to oviposition-associated piercing damage. This study ...
The value of existing regulatory frameworks for the environmental risk assessment of agricultural pest control using gene drive
Tags: Biological control, Gene drive synthetic, Genetically modified organisms, Incompatible insect technique, Regulation, Risk assessment, Sterile insect technique (SIT)J. Romeis, J. Collatz, D. C. M. Glandorf and M. B. Bonsall, Environmental Science & Policy, 108:19-36. 2020.
The application of (synthetic) gene drives is a powerful tool to control populations of insects that are agricultural pests, vectors of diseases, or a threat to biodiversity potentially leading to the local or global eradication of a species. The potential use of gene drive ...
Editorial Expression of Concern: Transgenic Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes Transfer Genes into a Natural Population
Tags: Aedes, Arbovirus, Dengue, Genetic biocontrol, Genetically modified mosquitoes, Oxitec, Risk and safety, South/Central America, Sterile insect technique (SIT)B. R. Evans, P. Kotsakiozi, A. L. Costa-Da-Silva, R. S. Ioshino, L. Garziera, M. C. Pedrosa, A. Malavasi, J. F. Virginio, M. L. Capurro and J. R. Powell, Scientific Reports, 10:2. 2020.
Shortly after publication of this Article in September 2019, the Editors were alerted to concerns regarding the interpretation of the data and some of the conclusions.
Experimental manipulation of selfish genetic elements links genes to microbial community function
Tags: Gene drive mechanisms, Population genetics/dynamicsS. D. Quistad, G. Doulcier and P. B. Rainey, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 375:12. 2020.
Microbial communities underpin the Earth's biological and geochemical processes, but their complexity hampers understanding. Motivated by the challenge of diversity and the need to forge ways of capturing dynamical behaviour connecting genes to function, biologically independent ...
Can a population targeted by a CRISPR-based homing gene drive be rescued?
Tags: CRISPR, Gene drive synthetic, Replicator/site directed nuclease, Risk assessmentN. O. Rode, V. Courtier-Orgogozo and F. Débarre, bioRxiv, 2020.03.17.995829. 2020.
CRISPR-based homing gene drive is a genetic control technique aiming to modify or eradicate natural populations through the release of individuals carrying an engineered piece of DNA that can be inherited by all their progeny. Developing countermeasures is important to control ...
Simulating effects of fitness and dispersal on the use of Trojan sex chromosomes for the management of invasive species
Tags: Biological control, Fish, Genetic biocontrol, Modeling, Pest management, Sex distorter, Y-chromosomeC. C. Day, E. L. Landguth, R. K. Simmons, W. P. Baker, A. R. Whiteley, P. M. Lukacs and A. Bearlin, Journal of Applied Ecology, 2020.
The use of Trojan Y chromosomes (TYC) for controlling invasive species involves manipulating the sex chromosomes of captive-raised individuals. Following release, the offspring of these individuals consist of only one sex, thereby skewing the sex ratio of the invasive population ...
Computational and experimental performance of CRISPR homing gene drive strategies with multiplexed gRNAs
Tags: CRISPR, Gene drive synthetic, Replicator/site directed nuclease, ResistanceS. E. Champer, S. Y. Oh, C. Liu, Z. Wen, A. G. Clark, P. W. Messer and J. Champer, Science Advances, 6:eaaz0525. 2020.
The rapid evolution of resistance alleles poses a major obstacle for genetic manipulation of populations with CRISPR homing gene drives. One proposed solution is using multiple guide RNAs (gRNAs), allowing a drive to function even if some resistant target sites are present. Here, ...
Anti-CRISPR protein applications: natural brakes for CRISPR-Cas technologies
Tags: CRISPR, Gene drive mechanisms, Gene drive syntheticMarino, N. D., Pinilla-Redondo, R. , Csorgo, B., Bondy-Denomy, J., Nature Methods, 2020.
Clustered, regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and CRISPR-associated (Cas) genes, a diverse family of prokaryotic adaptive immune systems, have emerged as a biotechnological tool and therapeutic. The discovery of protein inhibitors of CRISPR-Cas systems, ...
Abundance of conserved CRISPR-Cas9 target sites within the highly polymorphic genomes of Anopheles and Aedes mosquitoes
Tags: Anopheles, Gene drive synthetic, Genetics, Population genetics/dynamics, ResistanceH. Schmidt, T. C. Collier, M. J. Hanemaaijer, P. D. Houston, Y. Lee and G. C. Lanzaro, Nature Communications, 11. 2020.
ere we report the results of a survey of 1280 genomes of the mosquitoes Anopheles gambiae, An. coluzzii, and Aedes aegypti in which we determine that similar to 90% of all protein-encoding CGD target genes in natural populations include at least one target site with no DRAs at a ...
A fly model establishes distinct mechanisms for synthetic CRISPR/Cas9 sex distorters
Tags: Fruit fly, Gene drive synthetic, Other arthropods, Y-chromosomeB. Fasulo, A. Meccariello, M. Morgan, C. Borufka, P. A. Papathanos and N. Windbichler, PLOS Genetics, 16:e1008647. 2020.
Author summary Harmful insect populations can be eliminated for a lack of females if they are made to produce mostly male offspring. There are genes that occur naturally that make males produce mostly sons and, although we don’t know exactly how they work, this appears to ...
Performance analysis of novel toxin-antidote CRISPR gene drive systems
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Replicator/site directed nuclease, Resistance, Toxin-antidoteJ. Champer, I. K. Kim, S. E. Champer, A. G. Clark and P. W. Messer, BMC Biology, 18:27. 2020.
CRISPR gene drive systems allow the rapid spread of a genetic construct throughout a population. Such systems promise novel strategies for the management of vector-borne diseases and invasive species by suppressing a target population or modifying it with a desired trait. ...
Stakeholder workshop “Problem formulation for the environmental risk assessment of gene drive modified insects” (15 May 2019, Brussels)
Tags: Biodiversity/Conservation, Gene drive synthetic, PolicyEuropean Food Safety, A., Devos, Y., Gallani, B. & Firbank, L. G, A. European Food Safety, Y. Devos, B. Gallani and L. G. Firbank, 17:1819E. 2020.
Recent advances in molecular and synthetic biology are enabling the engineering of gene drives that spread genes of interest through interbreeding populations at a frequency greater than the rate expected by simple Mendelian inheritance. At present, insects represent the most ...
Toward the definition of efficacy and safety criteria for advancing gene drive-modified mosquitoes to field testing
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Policy, Risk and safetyS. L. James, J. M. Marshall, G. K. Christophides, F. O. Okumu and T. Nolan, Vector Borne and Zoonotic Diseases, 20:237. 2020.
Mosquitoes containing gene drive systems are being developed as complementary tools to prevent transmission of malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases. As with any new tool, decision makers and other stakeholders will need to balance risks (safety) and benefits (efficacy) when ...
Population-level multiplexing: A promising strategy to manage the evolution of resistance against gene drives targeting a neutral locus
Tags: CRISPR, Gene drive synthetic, Genetic engineering, Population genetics/dynamicsM. P. Edgington, T. Harvey-Samuel and L. Alphey, Evolutionary Applications, 10. 2020.
CRISPR-based gene drives bias inheritance in their favour by inducing double-stranded breaks (DSBs) at wild-type homologous loci and using the drive transgene as a repair template-converting drive heterozygotes into homozygotes. Recent studies have shown that alternate ...
A unifying approach to gene drive
Tags: Gene drive syntheticP. Verma, R. Reeves and C. S. Gokhale, bioRxiv, 2020.02.28.970103. 2020.
Synthetic gene drive technologies aim to spread transgenic constructs into wild populations even when they impose organismal fitness disadvantages. The properties of gene drive constructs are diverse and depend on their molecular construction, and differential selection pressure ...
Public health concerns over gene-drive mosquitoes: will future use of gene-drive snails for schistosomiasis control gain increased level of community acceptance?
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Mosquitoes, Other invertebratesD. O. Famakinde, Pathogens and Global Health, 2020.
With the advent of CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat)-based gene drive, present genetic research in schistosomiasis vector control envisages the breeding and release of transgenic schistosome-resistant (TSR) snail vectors to curb the spread of the ...

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