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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An Initial Framework for the Environmental Risk Assessment of Synthetic Biology-Derived Organisms with a Focus on Gene Drives.
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Genetic biocontrol, Policy, Regulation, Risk and safety, Risk assessmentW. G. Landis, E. A. Brown and S. Eikenbary, Synthetic Biology 2020: Frontiers in Risk Analysis and Governance. Risk, Systems and Decisions., 2019.
We apply the structure of source-stressor-habitat-effect-impact pathway derived from the relative risk model (Landis and Wiegers 2005) and as was demonstrated to be applicable in the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) 2016 report Gene Drives on the ...
An X-linked meiotic drive allele has strong, recessive fitness costs in female Drosophila pseudoobscura
Tags: Evolution, Population genetics/dynamics, Selfish genetic elements, Transmission distortionW. Larner, T. Price, L. Holman and N. Wedell, Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 286:9. 2019.
Selfish 'meiotic drive' alleles are transmitted to more than 50% of offspring, allowing them to rapidly invade populations even if they reduce the fitness of individuals carrying them. Theory predicts that drivers should either fix or go extinct, yet some drivers defy these ...
Establishment of Wolbachia Strain wAlbB in Malaysian Populations of Aedes aegypti for Dengue Control
Tags: Aedes, Dengue, Genetic biocontrol, WolbachiaW. A. Nazni, A. A. Hoffmann, A. NoorAfizah, Y. L. Cheong, M. V. Mancini, N. Golding, G. M. R. Kamarul, M. A. K. Arif, H. Thohir, H. NurSyamimi, M. Z. ZatilAqmar, M. NurRuqqayah, A. NorSyazwani, A. Faiz, F.-R. M. N. Irfan, S. Rubaaini, N. Nuradila, N. M. N, Current Biology, 29:4241-4248.e5. 2019.
Dengue has enormous health impacts globally. A novel approach to decrease dengue incidence involves the introduction of Wolbachia endosymbionts that block dengue virus transmission into populations of the primary vector mosquito, Aedes aegypti. The wMel Wolbachia strain has ...
The Competitive Mating of Irradiated Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs, Halyomorpha halys, for the Sterile Insect Technique
Tags: Sterile insect technique (SIT)D. M. Suckling, M. Cristofaro, G. Roselli, M. C. Levy, A. Cemmi, V. Mazzoni, L. D. Stringer, V. Zeni, C. Ioriatti and G. Anfora, Insects, 10. 2019.
The sterility of eggs and nymphs from gamma-irradiated male Halyomorpha halys was investigated to determine the potential for the sterile insect technique (SIT). Males irradiated at 0, 16, 24 and 32 Gy were placed with untreated virgin females, and egg sterility was determined, ...
Effects of a male meiotic driver on male and female transcriptomes in the house mouse
Tags: Evolution, Gene drive, Gene drive mechanisms, Gene editing, Population genetics/dynamics, Rodents, Transmission distortionA. Lindholm, A. Sutter, S. Kunzel, D. Tautz and H. Rehrauer, Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 286:1-8. 2019.
Not all genetic loci follow Mendel's rules, and the evolutionary consequences of this are not yet fully known. Genomic conflict involving multiple loci is a likely outcome, as restoration of Mendelian inheritance patterns will be selected for, and sexual conflict may also arise ...
Rodent gene drives for conservation: opportunities and data needs
Tags: Biodiversity/Conservation, Gene drive synthetic, RodentsJ. Godwin, M. Serr, K. Barnhill-Dilling, D. V. Blondel, P. R. Brown, K. Campbell, J. Delborne, A. L. Lloyd, K. P. Oh, T. A. A. Prowse, R. Saah and P. Thomas, Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 286:20191606. 2019.
Invasive rodents impact biodiversity, human health and food security worldwide. The biodiversity impacts are particularly significant on islands, which are the primary sites of vertebrate extinctions and where we are reaching the limits of current control technologies. Gene ...
The impact of local population genetic background on the spread of the selfish element Medea-1 in red flour beetles
Tags: Evolution, Gene drive mechanisms, Gene drive synthetic, Selfish genetic elements, Toxin-antidoteS. A. Cash, M. A. Robert, M. D. Lorenzen and F. Gould, Ecology and Evolution, 12:1-12. 2019.
Selfish genetic elements have been found in the genomes of many species, yet our understanding of their evolutionary dynamics is only partially understood. A number of distinct selfish Medea elements are naturally present in many populations of the red flour beetle (Tribolium ...
The distribution and spread of naturally occurring Medea selfish genetic elements in the United States
Tags: Evolution, Gene drive mechanisms, Selfish genetic elements, Toxin-antidoteS. A. Cash, M. D. Lorenzen and F. Gould, Ecology and Evolution, 9:14407–14416.. 2019.
Selfish genetic elements (SGEs) are DNA sequences that are transmitted to viable offspring in greater than Mendelian frequencies. Medea SGEs occur naturally in some populations of red flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum) and are expected to increase in frequency within populations ...
Meiotic drive mechanisms: lessons from Drosophila
Tags: Transmission distortionC. Courret, C.-H. Chang, K. H.-C. Wei, C. Montchamp-Moreau and A. M. Larracuente, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 286:20191430. 2019.
Meiotic drivers are selfish genetic elements that bias their transmission into gametes, often to the detriment of the rest of the genome. The resulting intragenomic conflicts triggered by meiotic drive create evolutionary arms races and shape genome evolution. The phenomenon of ...
Does meiotic drive alter male mate preference?
Tags: Evolution, Fruit fly, Population genetics/dynamics, Transmission distortionS. R. Finnegan, L. Nitsche, M. Mondani, M. F. Camus, K. Fowler and A. Pomiankowski, Behavioral Ecology, 13:194-201. 2019.
Male mate preferences have been demonstrated across a range of species, including the Malaysian stalk-eyed fly, Teleopsis dalmanni. This species is subject to sex-ratio (SR), an X-linked male meiotic driver, which causes the dysfunction of Y-sperm and the production of all-female ...
Fitness consequences of the selfish supergene Segregation Distorter
Tags: Evolution, Selfish genetic elements, Transmission distortionH. W. S. Wong and L. Holman, Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 33:89-100. 2019.
Segregation distorters are selfish genetic elements that subvert Mendelian inheritance, often by destroying gametes that do not carry the distorter. Simple theoretical models predict that distorter alleles will either spread to fixation or stabilize at some high intermediate ...
Evolutionary simulations of Z-linked suppression gene drives
Tags: Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Other arthropods, Resistance, Selfish genetic elementsL. Holman, Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 286:1-9. 2019.
Synthetic gene drives may soon be used to suppress or eliminate populations of disease vectors, pathogens, invasive species, and agricultural pests. Recent proposals have focused on using Z-linked gene drives to control species with ZW sex determination, which include ...
Peri-Urban Community Attitudes towards Codling Moth Trapping and Suppression Using the Sterile Insect Technique in New Zealand
Tags: Genetic biocontrol, Moths, Policy, Risk assessment, Stakeholder engagementG. Paterson, G. L. W. Perry, J. T. S. Walker and D. M. Suckling, Insects, 10. 2019.
New, more socially-acceptable technologies are being developed to suppress horticultural pests, because suppression is technically difficult with current technologies, especially in urban areas. One technique involves the release of sterile insects to prevent offspring in the ...
Efforts to enhance safety measures for CRISPR/Cas-based gene drive technology in Japan
Tags: Ethics, Gene drive synthetic, Policy, Risk and safetyT. Tanaka, N. Tanaka, Y. Nagano, H. Kanuka, D. S. Yamamoto, N. Yamamoto, E. Nanba and T. Nishiuch, Journal of Environment and Safety, 2019.
Gene drive is a powerful system that can spread a desirable genetic trait into an entire species and/or population of a certain region, bypassing Mendelian rules of inheritance. Recently, one of the genome editing technologies, CRISPR/Cas, has been developed, making it easier to ...
Gene Drives: Dynamics and Regulatory Matters-A Report from the Workshop “Evaluation of Spatial and Temporal Control of Gene Drives,” April 4-5, 2019, Vienna
Tags: Gene drive, Modeling, Policy, Population genetics/dynamics, Regulation, Risk and safety, Synthetic biologyB. Giese, J. L. Friess, N. H. Barton, P. W. Messer, F. Debarre, M. F. Schetelig, N. Windbichler, H. Meimberg and C. Boete, Bioessays, 41:3. 2019.
Gene Drives are regarded as future tools with a high potential for population control. Due to their inherent ability to overcome the rules of Mendelian inheritance, gene drives (GD) may spread genes rapidly through populations of sexually reproducing organisms. A release of ...
Two unresolved issues in community engagement for field trials of genetically modified mosquitoes
Tags: Ethics, Field trials, Genetically modified mosquitoes, Genetically modified organisms, Stakeholder engagementD. B. Resnik, Pathogens and Global Health, 113:238-245. 2019.
There is an emerging consensus among scientists, ethicists, and public health officials that substantive and effective engagement with communities and the wider public is required prior to releasing genetically modified mosquitoes into the environment.
Threshold-Dependent Gene Drives in the Wild: Spread, Controllability, and Ecological Uncertainty
Tags: Gene drive mechanisms, Gene drive synthetic, Toxin-antidoteG. A. Backus and J. A. Delborne, BioScience, 69:900-907. 2019.
Gene drive technology could allow the intentional spread of a desired gene throughout an entire wild population in relatively few generations. However, there are major concerns that gene drives could either fail to spread or spread without restraint beyond the targeted ...
Mosquito Control
Dye-Braumuller K, Fredregill C, Debboun M., Mosquitoes, Communities, and Public Health in Texas, 8:249-278. 2019.Globally, mosquito control has evolved over centuries, as humans have learned more about the world’s deadliest animal,that is, the mosquito, and the pathogens they are capable of transmitting. Mosquitoes not only transmit pathogens but also cause severe allergic reactions, ...
Malaria eradication within a generation: ambitious, achievable, and necessary
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, MalariaR. G. A. Feachem, I. Chen, O. Akbari, A. Bertozzi-Villa, S. Bhatt, F. Binka, M. F. Boni, C. Buckee, J. Dieleman, A. Dondorp, A. Eapen, N. Sekhri Feachem, S. Filler, P. Gething, R. Gosling, A. Haakenstad, K. Harvard, A. Hatefi, D. Jamison, K. E. Jones, C., Lancet, 394:1056-1112. 2019.
50 years after a noble but flawed attempt to eradicate malaria in the mid-20th century, the global malaria community is once again seriously considering eradication. Momentum towards eradication has been building for decades, and more than half of the world’s countries are now ...
Standard deviations: The biological bases of transmission ratio distortion
Tags: Genetic incompatibilities, Selfish genetic elements, Sex distorter, Transmission distortionL. Fishman and M. McIntosh, Annual Review of Genetics, 53:347-372. 2019.
The rule of Mendelian inheritance is remarkably robust, but deviations from the equal transmission of alternative alleles at a locus [a.k.a. transmission ratio distortion (TRD)] are also commonly observed in genetic mapping populations. Such TRD reveals locus-specific selection ...
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