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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The roles of ethics in gene drive research and governance
Tags: Ethics, Gene drive syntheticThompson, PB, Journal of Responsible Innovation, 5:S159-S179. 2018.
Ethics research queries the norms and values that shape the goals and justification for gene drive projects, and that might lead to issue or opposition to such projects. A framework for organizing ethics research is offered. In addition to basic research ethics and risk ...
Identifying knowledge gaps for gene drive research to control invasive animal species: The next CRISPR step
Tags: CRISPR, Ecology, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Invasive species, Pest managementMoro, DB, Margaret; Kennedy, Malcolm; Campbell, Susan; Tizard, Mark, Global Ecology and Conservation, 13:e00363. 2018.
Invasive animals have been linked to the extinctions of native wildlife, and to significant agricultural financial losses or impacts. Current approaches to control invasive species require ongoing resources and management over large geographic scales, and often result in the ...
Origin, composition, and structure of the supernumerary B chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster
Tags: Chromosomal drive, Gene drive mechanisms, Other arthropodsHanlon, SLM, Danny E.; Eche, Salam; Hawley, R. Scott, Genetics, 210:1197. 2018.
The number of chromosomes carried by an individual species is one of its defining characteristics. Some species, however, can also carry supernumerary chromosomes referred to as B chromosomes. B chromosomes were recently identified in a laboratory stock of Drosophila ...
Public engagement and communication: who is in charge?
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Risk and safetyBoëte, C, EMBO reports, 19:1. 2018.
The discovery of CRISPR has led to the development of gene drive systems that could be used to spread desired traits in a target species or to exterminate a population within a few generations. It is no surprise then that such a controversial and disruptive technology has raised ...
Switchable genome editing via genetic code expansion
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Other mammals, Risk and safetySuzuki, TA, Maki; Patel, Sanjay G.; Luk, Louis Y. P.; Tsai, Yu-Hsuan; Perry, Anthony C. F., Scientific Reports, 8:10051. 2018.
Multiple applications of genome editing by CRISPR-Cas9 necessitate stringent regulation and Cas9 variants have accordingly been generated whose activity responds to small ligands, temperature or light. However, these approaches are often impracticable, for example in clinical ...
Economic issues to consider for gene drives
Tags: Agriculture, Biodiversity/Conservation, CRISPR, Ecology, Gene drive synthetic, Gene editing, Invasive species, MalariaMitchell, PDB, Z.; McRoberts, N., Journal of Responsible Innovation, 5:S180-S202. 2018.
We examine four economic issues regarding gene drive applications made possible by gene editing technologies. First, whether gene drives are self-sustaining or self-limiting will largely determine which types of organizations have incentives to develop and deploy gene drives and ...
Gene drive inhibition by the anti-CRISPR proteins AcrIIA2 and AcrIIA4 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Tags: Agriculture, CRISPR, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Yeast and FungiBasgall, EMG, S. C.; Goeckel, M. E.; Giersch, R. M.; Roggenkamp, E.; Schrock, M. N.; Halloran, M.; Finnigan, G. C., Microbiology-Sgm, 164:464-474. 2018.
Given the widespread use and application of the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas gene editing system across many fields, a major focus has been the development, engineering and discovery of molecular means to precisely control and regulate ...
Improved CRISPR-based suppression gene drives mitigate resistance and impose a large reproductive load on laboratory-contained mosquito populations
Tags: Evolution, Gene drive synthetic, Other arthropodsHammond, AMK, Kyros; Gribble, Matthew; Karlsson, Xenia; Morianou, Ioanna; Galizi, Roberto; Beaghton, Andrea; Crisanti, Andrea; Nolan, Tony, bioRxiv, 360339:1-16. 2018.
CRISPR-based genes drives bias their own inheritance and can be used to modify entire populations of insect vectors of disease as a novel form of sustainable disease control. Gene drives designed to interfere with female fertility can suppress populations of the mosquito vector ...
Kinetic basis for DNA target specificity of CRISPR-Cas12a
Tags: Gene drive syntheticStrohkendl, IS, Fatema A.; Rybarski, James R.; Finkelstein, Ilya J.; Russell, Rick, Molecular Cell, 71:816-824. 2018.
Summary Class 2 CRISPR-Cas nucleases are programmable genome editing tools with promising applications in human health and disease. However, DNA cleavage at off-target sites that resemble the target sequence is a pervasive problem that remains poorly understood mechanistically. ...
Anticipating complexity in the deployment of gene drive insects in agriculture
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Risk and safetyBaltzegar, JCB, Jessica; Elsensohn, Johanna E.; Gutzmann, Nicole; Jones, Michael S.; King, Sheron; Sudweeks, Jayce, Journal of Responsible Innovation, 5:S81-S97. 2018.
Insects cause substantial losses to agricultural crops each yearand require intensive management approaches. Genetic pestmanagement has emerged as a viable, non-chemical alternative formanaging insect pests. The development of engineered genedrives for agricultural use is ...
Genetics and genomics of an unusual selfish sex ratio distortion in an insect
Tags: Chromosomal drive, Evolution, Other arthropods, WolbachiaHamilton, PTH, C. N.; Curtis, C. I.; Perlman, S. J., Current Biology, 28:3864-3870. 2018.
Diverse selfish genetic elements have evolved the ability to manipulate reproduction to increase their transmission, and this can result in highly distorted sex ratios [1]. Indeed, one of the major explanations for why sex determination systems are so dynamic is because they are ...
Harnessing gene drive
Tags: Ethics, Gene drive synthetic, Governance, Policy, Regulation, Risk and safety, Stakeholder engagementMin, JS, Andrea L.; Najjar, Devora; Esvelt, Kevin M., Journal of Responsible Innovation, 5:S40-S65. 2018.
When scientists alter the genome of an organism, we typically reduce its ability to reproduce in the wild. This limitation has prevented researchers from rendering wild insects unable to spread disease, programing pests to ignore our crops, using genetics to precisely remove ...
Satellite DNAs unveil clues about the ancestry and composition of B chromosomes in three grasshopper species
Tags: Chromosomal drive, Other arthropodsMilani, DB, Vanessa; Ferretti, Ana; Palacios-Gimenez, Octavio; Melo, Adriana; Moura, Rita; Loreto, Vilma; Song, Hojun; Cabral-de-Mello, Diogo, Genes, 9:e523. 2018.
Supernumerary (B) chromosomes are dispensable genomic elements occurring frequently among grasshoppers. Most B chromosomes are enriched with repetitive DNAs, including satellite DNAs (satDNAs) that could be implicated in their evolution. Although studied in some species, the ...
Selfish genetic elements
Tags: Evolution, Fruit fly, Gene drive synthetic, Population genetics/dynamics, Replicator/site directed nuclease, Selfish genetic elements, Sex distorter, Transmission distortionAgren, JAC, A. G., PLOS Genetics, 14:20. 2018.
Selfish genetic elements (historically also referred to as selfish genes, ultra-selfish genes, selfish DNA, parasitic DNA, genomic outlaws) are genetic segments that can enhance their own transmission at the expense of other genes in the genome, even if this has no or a negative ...
Strengthening regulatory capacity for gene drives in Africa: leveraging NEPAD’s experience in establishing regulatory systems for medicines and GM crops in Africa
Tags: Ethics, Gene drive synthetic, Risk and safetyGlover, BA, Olalekan; Savadogo, Moussa; Timpo, Samuel; Lemgo, Godwin; Sinebo, Woldeyesus; Akile, Sunday; Obukosia, Silas; Ouedraogo, Jeremy; Ndomondo-Sigonda, Margareth; Koch, Muffy; Makinde, Diran; Ambali, Aggrey, BMC Proceedings, 12:1-10. 2018.
The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Agency recognizes that Africa is in a period of transition and that this demands exploring and harnessing safe advances made in science-based innovations including modern biotechnology. To advance the science of biotechnology ...
To reduce the global burden of human schistosomiasis, use ‘old fashioned’ snail control
Tags: Ecology, Gene drive synthetic, Other invertebratesSokolow, SHW, Chelsea L.; Jones, Isabel J.; Lafferty, Kevin D.; Kuris, Armand; Hsieh, Michael H.; De Leo, Giulio A., Trends in Parasitology, 34:23-40. 2018.
Control strategies to reduce human schistosomiasis have evolved from ‘snail picking’ campaigns, a century ago, to modern wide-scale human treatment campaigns, or preventive chemotherapy. Unfortunately, despite the rise in preventive chemotherapy campaigns, just as many people ...
Gene flow mediates the role of sex chromosome meiotic drive during complex speciation
Tags: Fruit fly, Other arthropods, Transmission distortionMeiklejohn, CDL, Emily L.; Gordon, Kathleen E.; Rzatkiewicz, Thomas; Kingan, Sarah B.; Geneva, Anthony J.; Vedanayagam, Jeffrey P.; Muirhead, Christina A.; Garrigan, Daniel; Stern, David L.; Presgraves, Daven C., eLife, 7:e35468. 2018.
During speciation, sex chromosomes often accumulate interspecific genetic incompatibilities faster than the rest of the genome. The drive theory posits that sex chromosomes are susceptible to recurrent bouts of meiotic drive and suppression, causing the evolutionary build-up of ...
Population dynamics of engineered underdominance and killer-rescue gene drives in the control of disease vectors
Tags: Ecology, Evolution, Gene drive synthetic, Toxin-antidote, UnderdominanceEdgington, MPA, Luke S., PLOS Computational Biology, 14:e1006059. 2018.
Vector-borne diseases represent a severe burden to both human and animal health worldwide. The methods currently being used to control a range of these diseases do not appear sufficient to address the issues at hand. As such, alternate methods for the control of vector-borne ...
Synthetic gene drive: between continuity and novelty: Crucial differences between gene drive and genetically modified organisms require an adapted risk assessment for their use
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Risk and safetySimon, SO, Mathias; Engelhard, Margret, EMBO Reports, 19:e45760. 2018.
Gene drive organisms differ from “classical” genetically modified organisms in several crucial aspects. It would require new approaches for risk assessment to gauge their potential impact on the environment. While some argue that current risk assessment frameworks can ...
A CRISPR–Cas9-based gene drive platform for genetic interaction analysis in Candida albicans
Tags: Agriculture, Gene drive syntheticShapiro, RSC, Alejandro; Porter, Caroline B. M.; Hamblin, Meagan; Kaas, Christian S.; DiCarlo, James E.; Zeng, Guisheng; Xu, Xiaoli; Revtovich, Alexey V.; Kirienko, Natalia V.; Wang, Yue; Church, George M.; Collins, James J., Nature Microbiology, 3:73-82. 2018.
Candida albicans is the leading cause of fungal infections; yet, complex genetic interaction analysis remains cumbersome in this diploid pathogen. Here, we developed a CRISPR–Cas9-based ‘gene drive array’ platform to facilitate efficient genetic analysis in C. albicans. In ...

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