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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Evolutionary dynamics of CRISPR gene drives
Tags: Evolution, Gene drive syntheticNoble, CO, Jason; Esvelt, Kevin M.; Church, George M.; Nowak, Martin A., Science Advances, 3:e1601964. 2017.
The alteration of wild populations has been discussed as a solution to a number of humanity’s most pressing ecological and public health concerns. Enabled by the recent revolution in genome editing, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) gene ...
Impact of mosquito gene drive on malaria elimination in a computational model with explicit spatial and temporal dynamics
Tags: Ecology, Gene drive synthetic, Replicator/site directed nucleaseEckhoff, PAW, E. A.; Godfray, H. C. J.; Burt, A., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 114:e255-e264. 2017.
The renewed effort to eliminate malaria and permanently remove its tremendous burden highlights questions of what combination of tools would be sufficient in various settings and what new tools need to be developed. Gene drive mosquitoes constitute a promising set of tools, with ...
CRISPR/Cas9 gene drives in genetically variable and nonrandomly mating wild populations
Tags: Evolution, Gene drive mechanisms, Gene drive synthetic, Risk and safetyDrury, DWD, A. L.; Siniard, D. J.; Zentner, G. E.; Wade, M. J., Science Advances, 3:e1601910. 2017.
Synthetic gene drives based on CRISPR/Cas9 have the potential to control, alter, or suppress populations of crop pests and disease vectors, but it is unclear how they will function in wild populations. Using genetic data from four populations of the flour beetle Tribolium ...
Genetic conflicts: the usual suspects and beyond
Tags: Evolution, Fruit fly, Genetic engineering, Transmission distortion, WolbachiaMcLaughlin, RNM, H. S., Journal of Experimental Biology, 220:6-17. 2017.
Selfishness is pervasive and manifests at all scales of biology, from societies, to individuals, to genetic elements within a genome. The relentless struggle to seek evolutionary advantages drives perpetual cycles of adaptation and counter-adaptation, commonly referred to as Red ...
B chromosome in Plantago lagopus Linnaeus, 1753 shows preferential transmission and accumulation through unusual processes
Tags: Chromosomal drive, Gene drive mechanismsDhar, MKK, G.; Kaul, S., Comparative Cytogenetics, 11:375-391. 2017.
Plantago lagopus is a diploid (2n = 2x = 12) weed belonging to family Plantaginaceae. We reported a novel B chromosome in this species composed of 5S and 45S ribosomal DNA and other repetitive elements. In the present work, presence of B chromosome(s) was confirmed through FISH ...
Engineering species-like barriers to sexual reproduction
Tags: Agriculture, Gene drive mechanisms, Gene drive synthetic, Risk and safetyMaselko, MH, Stephen C.; Chacón, Jeremy M.; Harcombe, William R.; Smanski, Michael J., Nature Communications, 8:883. 2017.
Controlling the exchange of genetic information between sexually reproducing populations has applications in agriculture, eradication of disease vectors, control of invasive species, and the safe study of emerging biotechnology applications. Here we introduce an approach to ...
Gene drives do not always increase in frequency: from genetic models to risk assessment
Tags: CRISPR, Evolution, Gene drive, Gene drive mechanisms, Replicator/site directed nuclease, Risk and safety, Transmission distortion, Vector controlde Jong, TJ, Journal Fur Verbraucherschutz Und Lebensmittelsicherheit-Journal of Consumer Protection and Food Safety, 12:299-307. 2017.
Homing genes encode endonucleases that make a double stranded break in the DNA, destroying a target site on the homologous chromosome. When the cell repairs the break the homing allele is copied, converting a heterozygote into a homozygote. This results in gene drive (GD), an ...
Sperm competition suppresses gene drive among experimentally evolving populations of house mice
Tags: Ecology, Evolution, Fruit fly, Gene drive, Population genetics/dynamics, Rodents, Transmission distortionManser, AL, A. K.; Simmons, L. W.; Firman, R. C., Molecular Ecology, 26:5784-5792. 2017.
Drive genes are genetic elements that manipulate the 50% ratio of Mendelian inheritance in their own favour, allowing them to rapidly propagate through populations. The action of drive genes is often hidden, making detection and identification inherently difficult. Yet drive ...
The promise and peril of CRISPR gene drives
Tags: CRISPR, Gene drive synthetic, Replicator/site directed nuclease, Self limiting, Transmission distortionZentner, GEW, Michael J. C., Bioessays, 39:1-9. 2017.
Gene drives are selfish genetic elements that use a variety of mechanisms to ensure they are transmitted to subsequent generations at greater than expected frequencies. Synthetic gene drives based on the clustered regularly interspersed palindromic repeats (CRISPR) genome editing ...
A bigger toolbox: Biotechnology in biodiversity conservation
Tags: Biodiversity/Conservation, Gene drive synthetic, Genetic engineering, GenomicsR. T. Corlett, Trends in Biotechnology, 35:55-65. 2017.
Conservation biology needs a bigger toolbox to meet unprecedented challenges. Genomics, fueled by declining sequencing costs, offers novel tools with increased precision for genetic questions previously answered with a few molecular markers, as well as completely new ...
Agricultural pest control with CRISPR-based gene drive: time for public debate: Should we use gene drive for pest control?
Tags: Ethics, Gene drive synthetic, Risk and safetyCourtier?Orgogozo, VM, Baptiste; Boëte, Christophe, EMBO Reports, 18:878-880. 2017.
Gene drive based on the CRISPR/Cas-9 gene editing system is a powerful technology that promotes the inheritance of the gene drive tool itself via sexual reproduction and can therefore spread quickly through a population. It holds great potential for public health and humanitarian ...
Gene Drive for Mosquito Control: Where Did It Come from and Where Are We Headed?
Tags: Other arthropodsMacias, VMO, J. R.; Rasgon, J. L., International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 14:e1006. 2017.
Mosquito-borne pathogens place an enormous burden on human health. The existing toolkit is insufficient to support ongoing vector-control efforts towards meeting disease elimination and eradication goals. The perspective that genetic approaches can potentially add a significant ...
Unintended consequences of 21st century technology for agricultural pest management
Tags: Ethics, Regulation, Risk and safetyYoung, SL, EMBO reports, 18:1478-1478. 2017.
Comment on Agricultural pest control with CRISPR-based gene drive: time for public debate by Courtier-Orgogozo et al.
Adaptive risk management of gene drive experiments: Biosafety, biosecurity, and ethics
Tags: Policy, Regulation, Risk and safetyLunshof, JEB, A., Applied Biosafety, 22:97-103. 2017.
Emerging technologies in the life sciences call for new models of biosafety risk management. We examine the question of how to; address new developments in the life sciences and biosciences in a bottom-up manner—that is, from the concrete level of; biosafety practice with a ...
Introduction of a male-harming mitochondrial haplotype via ‘Trojan Females’ achieves population suppression in fruit flies
Tags: Gene drive mechanisms, Gene drive synthetic, Other arthropods, X chromosomeWolff, JNG, N. J.; Tompkins, D. M.; Dowling, D. K., eLife, 6:e23551. 2017.
Pests are a global threat to biodiversity, ecosystem function, and human health. Pest control approaches are thus numerous, but their implementation costly, damaging to non-target species, and ineffective at low population densities. The Trojan Female Technique (TFT) is a ...
Novel CRISPR/Cas9 gene drive constructs reveal insights into mechanisms of resistance allele formation and drive efficiency in genetically diverse populations
Tags: Evolution, Gene drive mechanisms, Gene drive synthetic, Other arthropodsChamper, JR, Riona; Oh, Suh Yeon; Liu, Chen; Liu, Jingxian; Clark, Andrew G.; Messer, Philipp W., PLOS Genetics, 13:e1006796. 2017.
Author summary Gene drive systems provide a wide array of potential applications, including new strategies for the control of vector-borne diseases. For example, a functioning gene drive system could rapidly spread a genetically modified allele designed to reduce pathogen ...
A transatlantic perspective on 20 emerging issues in biological engineering
Tags: Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Genomics, Other Symbionts, Risk and safety, Synthetic biologyWintle, BCB, C. R.; Rhodes, C.; Molloy, J. C.; Millett, P.; Adam, L.; Breitling, R.; Carlson, R.; Casagrande, R.; Dando, M.; Doubleday, R.; Drexler, E.; Edwards, B.; Ellis, T.; Evans, N. G.; Hammond, R.; Haseloff, J.; Kahl, L.; Kuiken, T.; Lichman, B. R.; Matthewman, C. A.; Napier, J. A.; OhEigeartaigh, S. S.; Patron, N. J.; Perello, E.; Shapira, P.; Tait, J.; Takano, E.; Sutherland, W. J., eLife, 6:21. 2017.
Advances in biological engineering are likely to have substantial impacts on global society. To explore these potential impacts we ran a horizon scanning exercise to capture a range of perspectives on the opportunities and risks presented by biological engineering. We first ...
Gene Drive 101: A Basic Guidance Resource for Biosafety Professionals
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Risk and safetyKrishnan, PG, David, Applied Biosafety, 22:181-184. 2017.
Biosafety risk assessment and containment framework strategies for research involving gene drives pose a challenge, as there are no published guidelines or regulatory information yet written specifically addressing biosafety and gene drive use. Since the risk is more at an ...
Teilhard de Chardin’s oeuvre within an ongoing discussion of a gene drive release for public health reasons
Tags: Ethics, Gene drive syntheticCartolovni, A, Life Sciences, Society and Policy, 13:18. 2017.
Within the domain of public health, vector-borne diseases are among the most vehemently discussed issues. Recent scientific breakthroughs in genome editing technology provided a solution to this issue in the form of a gene drive that might decrease and even eradicate vector-borne ...
A pooled sequencing approach identifies a candidate meiotic driver in Drosophila
Tags: Gene drive mechanisms, Other arthropods, Transmission distortionWei, KHCR, H. M.; Rathnam, C.; Lee, J.; Lin, D. A. N.; Ji, S. Q.; Mason, J. M.; Clark, A. G.; Barbash, D. A., Genetics, 206:451-465. 2017.
Meiotic drive occurs when a selfish element increases its transmission frequency above the Mendelian ratio by hijacking the asymmetric divisions of female meiosis. Meiotic drive causes genomic conflict and potentially has a major impact on genome evolution, but only a few drive ...

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