Scholarly Literature

This is an aggregation of scholarly literature from peer-reviewed journals,  bioRxiv , medRxiv and arXiv preprint servers focused on natural and engineered selfish genetic elements and genetic biocontrol. New citations are added as they appear. This content is intended for anyone interested in the scholarly literature on gene drive and genetic biocontrol.

A meiotic driver hijacks an epigenetic reader to disrupt mitosis in noncarrier offspring

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Yu Hua, Jianxiu Zhang, et al.,  PNAS,  121. 2024.
Killer meiotic drivers (KMDs) are selfish genetic elements that distort Mendelian inheritance by selectively killing meiotic products lacking the KMD element, thereby promoting their own propagation. Although KMDs have been found in diverse eukaryotes, only a limited number of ...

Structural duality enables a single protein to act as a toxin–antidote pair for meiotic drive

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Yu Hua, Jianxiu Zhang, et al.,  PNAS,  121. 2024.
In sexual reproduction, selfish genetic elements known as killer meiotic drivers (KMDs) bias inheritance by eliminating gametes that do not carry them. The selective killing behavior of most KMDs can be explained by a toxin–antidote model, where a toxin harms all gametes while ...

Exploring The Dynamics of Gene Drive Mosquitoes Within Wild Populations Using an Agent-Based Simulation

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S. Wickramasooriya, I. Mahmood, et al.,  IEEE Xplore,  2024.
Gene drive technology is emerging as a potentially powerful tool in combating vector-borne diseases – notably malaria. This study introduces an agent-based model (ABM) focused on the deployment of genetically engineered mosquitoes with gene drive (GEM) in Príncipe Island, ...

The Meiotic Drive: Intragenomic Competition and Selection

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I. A. Zakharov,  Russian Journal of Genetics,  60:1311-1318. 2024.
The article considers the distribution and mechanisms of the meiotic drive as a phenomenon manifested in unequal transmission of gene alleles and/or homologous chromosomes into gametes during meiosis. The meiotic drive has been studied in the most detail in Drosophila, mice, ...

Variable effects of transient Wolbachia infections on alphaviruses in Aedes aegypti

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Brittany L. Dodson, Sujit Pujhari, et al.,  PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases,  2024.
Wolbachia pipientis (= Wolbachia) has promise as a tool to suppress virus transmission by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. However, Wolbachia can have variable effects on mosquito-borne viruses. This variation remains poorly characterized, yet the multimodal effects of Wolbachia on ...

Biotechnology-enhanced genetic controls of the global pest Drosophila suzukii

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Ying Yan, Hassan M.M. Ahmed, Ernst A. Wimmer, et al.,  Trends in Biotechnology,  2024.
Genetic control is a biological control method that introduces traits that sterilize, kill, or modify the population via intraspecific mating. Therefore, it is regarded as a species-specific and environmentally friendly management option for pest species. Spotted wing ...

Improving the suppressive power of homing gene drive by co-targeting a distant-site female fertility gene

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Faber, N.R., Xu, X., Chen, J. et al.,  Nature Communications,  15. 2024.
Gene drive technology has the potential to address major biological challenges. Well-studied homing suppression drives have been shown to be highly efficient in Anopheles mosquitoes, but for other organisms, lower rates of drive conversion prevent elimination of the target ...

Navigating biosafety regulatory frameworks for genetic engineering in Africa: a focus on genome editing and gene drive technologies

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Tilahun Rabuma, Felix Moronta-Barrios, Wendy Craig,  Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology,  12. 2024.
Genome editing and gene drive technologies are increasingly gaining attraction in Africa, with researchers exploring their potential applications in agriculture, health and the environment. Acknowledging that robust regulatory frameworks are crucial in facilitating the ...

Engineering Resilient Gene Drives Towards Sustainable Malaria Control: Predicting, Testing and Overcoming Target Site Resistance

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Ioanna Morianou, Lee Phillimore, Bhavin S. Khatri,,  bioRxiv,  2024.
CRISPR-based gene drives are selfish genetic elements with the potential to spread through entire insect populations for sustainable vector control. Gene drives designed to disrupt the reproductive capacity of females can suppress laboratory populations of the malaria mosquito. ...

Pest control gets the CRISPR treatment

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Seydel, C.,  Nature Biotechnology,  2024.
In June 2024, the St. Louis–based pest control company Agragene released genetically modified fruit flies on berry farms in California and Oregon, moving the technology out of the laboratory and into contained field testing. The trial marked a milestone for a next-generation ...

Parental-effect gene-drive elements under partial selfing, or why do Caenorhabditis genomes have hyperdivergent regions?

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Matthew V Rockman,  Genetics,  2024.
Self-fertile Caenorhabditis nematodes carry a surprising number of Medea elements, alleles that act in heterozygous mothers and cause death or developmental delay in offspring that don’t inherit them. At some loci, both alleles in a cross operate as independent Medeas, ...

Stalk-eyed flies carrying a driving X chromosome compensate by increasing fight intensity

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Kimberly A. Paczolt, Macy E. Pritchard, Gabrielle T. Welsh, et al.,  Frontiers in Ethology,  3. 2024.
Exaggerated ornaments provide opportunities to understand how selection can operate at different levels to shape the evolution of a trait. While these features aid their bearer in attracting mates or fending off competitors, they can also be costly and influenced by the ...

Wolbachia Invasion in Mosquitoes with Incomplete CI, Imperfect Maternal Transmission and Maturation Delay

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Ma X, Su Y,  Bulletin of Mathematical Biology,  2024.
The mechanism of cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) is important in the study of Wolbachia invasion in wild mosquitoes. Su et al. (Bull Math Biol 84(9):95, 2022) proposed a delay differential equation model by relating the CI effect to maturation delay. In this paper, we ...

Wolbachia-based emerging strategies for control of vector-transmitted disease

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Diego Montenegro, Gerardo Cortés-Cortés, María Guadalupe Balbuena-Alonso, et al.,  Acta Tropica,  260. 2024.
Dengue fever is a mosquito-transmitted disease of great public health importance. Dengue lacks adequate vaccine protection and insecticide-based methods of mosquito control are proving increasingly ineffective. Here we review the emerging use of mosquitoes transinfected with the ...

The potential of gene drives in malaria vector species to control malaria in African environments

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Hancock, P.A., North, A., Leach, A.W. et al.,  Nature Communications,  15. 2024.
Gene drives are a promising means of malaria control with the potential to cause sustained reductions in transmission. In real environments, however, their impacts will depend on local ecological and epidemiological factors. We develop a data-driven model to investigate the ...

Practical Application of a Relationship-Based Model to Engagement for Gene-Drive Vector Control Programs

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Ana Kormos, Lodney Nazaré, Adionilde Aguiar dos Santos, and Gregory C. Lanzaro,  The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene,  111:341-360. 2024.
Engagement is an important component in the advancement of gene-drive vector control research programs as developers look to transition the technology from the laboratory to the field. As research advances and engagement surrounding this novel technology is put into practice, ...

Identification of novel genes responsible for a pollen killer present in local natural populations of Arabidopsis thaliana

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Anthony Ricou, Matthieu Simon, et al.,  bioRxiv,  2024.
Certain genetic elements are qualified as selfish because they favor their transmission to the progeny during reproduction to the detriment of gametes that do not carry them. These elements are widespread in fungi as well as in plants or in animals, and they are made up of two or ...

Evolutionary modes of wtf meiotic driver genes in Schizosaccharomyces pombe

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Yan-Hui Xu, Fang Suo, Xiao-Ran Zhang, et al.,  Genome Biology and Evolution,  2024.
Killer meiotic drivers (KMDs) are a class of selfish genetic elements that bias inheritance in their favor by destroying meiotic progeny that do not carry them. How KMDs evolve is not well understood. In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, the largest gene family, known ...

Fluorescent-based sex-separation technique in major invasive crop pest, Drosophila suzukii

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Junru Liu, Danny Rayes, Minzhe Yang, Omar S. Akbari,  bioRxiv,  2024.
Insect population biocontrol methods such as the sterile insect technique (SIT), represent promising alternatives to traditional pesticide-based control applications. To use these strategies efficiently requires scalable sex separation techniques which are currently lacking in ...

Evaluation of Wolbachia infection in Aedes aegypti suggests low prevalence and highly heterogeneous distribution in Medellín, Colombia

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rley Calle-Tobón, Raúl Rojo-Ospina, et al.,  Acta Tropica,  260. 2024.
Dengue virus, transmitted mainly by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, is a significant public health challenge in tropical and subtropical countries, with an incidence that is growing at an alarming rate. The release of Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes has been suggested as a strategy to ...

Loss-of-function in testis-specific serine/threonine protein kinase triggers male infertility in an invasive moth

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Wei, Z., Wang, Y., Zheng, K. et al.,  Communications Biology,  7. 2024.
Genetic biocontrol technologies present promising and eco-friendly strategies for the management of pest and insect-transmitted diseases. Although considerable advancements achieve in gene drive applications targeting mosquitoes, endeavors to combat agricultural pests have been ...

Gene Drive and Symbiont Technologies for Control of Mosquito-Borne Diseases

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Guan-Hong Wang, Ary Hoffmann, and Jackson Champer,  Annual Reviews,  70. 2024.
Mosquito-borne diseases, such as dengue and malaria, pose a significant burden to global health. Current control strategies with insecticides are only moderately effective. Scalable solutions are needed to reduce the transmission risk of these diseases. Symbionts and genome ...

Assessment of drive efficiency and resistance allele formation of a homing gene drive in the mosquito Aedes aegypti

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Xiaozhen Yang, Xuejiao Xu, et al.,  bioRxiv,  2024.
Aedes aegypti, known for transmitting viruses such as dengue, zika, and yellow fever, poses a significant public health threat. Conventional insecticides give rise to a range of issues, including ecological contamination and insect resistance. Hence, there is a pressing demand ...

Wolbachia infection in Aedes aegypti does not affect its vectorial capacity for Dirofilaria immitis

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Shirozu, T., Regilme, M.A.F., Ote, M. et al.,  Scientific Reports,  14. 2024.
Mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue and filariasis are a growing public health concern in endemic countries. Biological approaches, such as the trans-infection of Wolbachia pipientis in mosquitoes, are an alternative vector control strategy, especially for arthropod-borne ...

Stable introduction of Wolbachia wPip into invasive Anopheles stephensi for potential malaria control

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Yongkang Liang, Julian Liu, et al.,  PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases,  2024.
Recent efforts have successfully utilized the endosymbiotic bacterium Wolbachia to control mosquito-transmitted viral diseases like dengue in multiple countries. However, similar initiatives have been limited in combating malaria, the most devastating and deadly mosquito-borne ...

Current status of the sterile insect technique for the suppression of mosquito populations on a global scale

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Bouyer, J.,  Infectious Diseases of Poverty,  13. 2024.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has emphasized the urgent need for alternative strategies to chemical insecticides for controlling mosquito populations, particularly the invasive Aedes species, which are known vectors of arboviruses. Among these alternative approaches, the ...

Communicating the uncertainties associated with genetic biocontrol approaches: insights from communicators, science journalists and scientists in Africa

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Tonui, W. K., Ogoyi, D., Thuo, C., Tareh, C., et al.,  Journal of Science Communication,  23. 2024.
Genetic biocontrol approaches, such as gene drive technology is rapidly gaining interest from scientists and public health professionals due to their potential to overcome many challenges of current malaria control tools and strategies. This is particularly the case in Africa ...

To CRISPR or Not to CRISPR? Ethical Considerations in Gene-Editing Insects

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Brendan Parent, Meghan Barrett,  American Entomologist,  70:54-57. 2024.
Genetically modified corn has helped feed the world (Hernandes-Lopes et al. 2023). Genetically modified mosquitoes could help eliminate devastating diseases like malaria (Hammond and Galizi 2017). Plainly, gene editing can serve some important human interests. Still, many people ...

B chromosome and its non-Mendelian inheritance in Atractylodes lancea

Hara K, Kikuchi S, Inoue M, Tsusaka T, Sakurai M, Tanabe H, et al.,  PLoS One,  2024.
Supernumerary B chromosomes contribute to intraspecific karyotypic variation. B chromosomes have been detected in more than 2000 organisms; they possess unique and diverse features, including non-Mendelian inheritance. Here, we report one or more B chromosomes in the ...

Viral gene drive spread during herpes simplex virus 1 infection in mice

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Walter, M., Haick, A.K., Riley, R. et al.,  Nature Communications,  15. 2024.
Gene drives are genetic modifications designed to propagate efficiently through a population. Most applications rely on homologous recombination during sexual reproduction in diploid organisms such as insects, but we recently developed a gene drive in herpesviruses that relies on ...

Overcoming drug-resistant tumors with selection gene drives

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Hui Wang, Mingqi Xie,  Cell Genomics,  4. 2024.
Drug resistance is a major hurdle prohibiting effective treatment of many diseases, including cancer. Using model-guided designs, Leighow et al.1 engineered a dual-switch selection gene drive system custom designed to combat drug-resistant tumors. By demonstrating remarkable ...

Applications of Mathematical Programming to Genetic Biocontrol

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Váleri N. Vásquez, John M. Marshall,  SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics,  84. 2024.
We review existing approaches to optimizing the deployment of genetic biocontrol technologies—tools used to prevent vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue—and formulate a mathematical program that enables the incorporation of crucial ecological and logistical ...

Mark–Release–Recapture Trial with Aedes albopictus (Diptera, Culicidae) Irradiated Males: Population Parameters and Climatic Factors

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Amaro FIF, Soares P, Velo E, et al,  Insects,  15. 2024.
Aedes albopictus mosquitoes spread arboviruses like dengue, Zika, or chikungunya. The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) can be used as a prevention and control tool against Ae. albopictus populations. Mark–release–recapture (MRR) trials are fundamental to estimate the size of ...

Effectiveness of Wolbachia-mediated sterility coupled with sterile insect technique to suppress adult Aedes aegypti populations in Singapore: a synthetic control study

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Bansal, Somya, et al.,  The Lancet Planetary Health,  8:617-628. 2024.
In this synthetic control study, we conducted a large-scale, field trial of IIT-SIT targeting Aedes aegypti among high-rise public housing estates in Singapore, an equatorial city state. Routinely collected data from a large, nationwide surveillance system of 57 990 unique ...

Deployment of tethered gene drive for confined suppression in continuous space requires avoiding drive wave interference

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Ruobing Feng, Jackson Champer,  Molecular Ecology,  33. 2024.
Gene drives have great potential for suppression of pest populations and removal of exotic invasive species. CRISPR homing suppression drive is a powerful but unconfined drive, posing risks of uncontrolled spread. Thus, developing methods for confining a gene drive is of great ...

A model-informed target product profile for population modification gene drives for malaria control

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Agastya Mondal, Héctor M. Sánchez C., John M. Marshall,  medRxiv,  2024.
As reductions in malaria transmission in sub-Saharan Africa stagnate, gene drive-modified mosquitoes represent one of the most promising novel tools for continued disease control. In order to advance from the laboratory to the field, gene drives will be assessed against target ...

Autosomal suppression of sex-ratio meiotic drive influences the dynamics of X and Y chromosome coevolution

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Anjali Gupta, Robert L Unckless,  Journal of Heredity,  2024.
Sex-ratio meiotic drivers are selfish genes or gene complexes that bias the transmission of sex chromosomes resulting in skewed sex ratios. Existing theoretical models have suggested the maintenance of a four-chromosome equilibrium (with driving and standard X and suppressing and ...

Bunyamwera Virus Infection of Wolbachia-Carrying Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes Reduces Wolbachia Density

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Lefteri, D.A.; Rainey, S.M.; Murdochy, S.M.; Sinkins, S.P.,  Viruses,  16. 2024.
Wolbachia symbionts introduced into Aedes mosquitoes provide a highly effective dengue virus transmission control strategy, increasingly utilised in many countries in an attempt to reduce disease burden. Whilst highly effective against dengue and other positive-sense RNA viruses, ...

Functional and evolutionary constraints of wtf killer meiotic drivers

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Ananya Nidamangala Srinivasa, Samuel Campbell, Shriram Venkatesan, Nicole L Nuckolls, Jeffrey J Lange, Randal Halfmann, Sarah E Zanders,  bioRxiv,  2024.
Killer meiotic drivers are selfish DNA loci that sabotage the gametes that do not inherit them from a driver+/driver- heterozygote. These drivers often employ toxic proteins that target essential cellular functions to cause the destruction of driver- gametes. Identifying the ...

Optimizing and synchronizing Aedes aegypti colony for Sterile Insect Technique application: Egg hatching, larval development, and adult emergence rate

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Jennifer Thieme Castellon, Solomon Kibret Birhanie, Ale Macias, Rubi Casas, Jacob Hans, Michelle Q. Brown,  Acta Tropica,  259. 2024.
Mosquito Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) programs can be developed in smaller agencies through synchronization of the colony development to take advantage of the natural male early emergence. This paper examined key aspects of Ae. aegypti colony synchronization work, including egg ...

Population dynamics in spatial suppression gene drive models and the effect of resistance, density dependence, and life history

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Xinyue Zhang, Weitang Sun, Isabel K. Kim, Philipp W. Messer, Jackson Champer,  bioRxiv,  2024.
Due to their super-Mendelian inheritance, gene drive systems have the potential to provide revolutionary solutions to critical public health and environmental problems. For suppression drives, however, spatial structure can cause “chasing” population dynamics that may ...

Generating and testing the efficacy of reagents for CRISPR/Cas9 homology directed repair-based manipulations in Tribolium

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Hannah C Markley, Kennedy J Helms, Megan Maar, Gabriel E Zentner, Michael J Wade, Andrew C Zelhof,  Journal of Insect Science,  24. 2024.
CRISPR/Cas9 manipulations are possible in many insects and ever expanding. Nonetheless, success in one species and techniques developed for it are not necessarily applicable to other species. As such, the development and expansion of CRISPR-based (clustered regularly interspaced ...

Non-Mendelian transmission of X chromosomes: mechanisms and impact on sex ratios and population dynamics in different breeding systems

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Sally Adams; Andre Pires-daSilva,  Biochemical Society Transactions,  2024.
The non-Mendelian transmission of sex chromosomes during gametogenesis carries significant implications, influencing sex ratios and shaping evolutionary dynamics. Here we focus on known mechanisms that drive non-Mendelian inheritance of X chromosomes during spermatogenesis and ...

A comprehensive review of Wolbachia-mediated mechanisms to control dengue virus transmission in Aedes aegypti through innate immune pathways

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Iqra Mushtaq, Muhammad Sajjad Sarwar, Iqra Munzoor,  Viral Immunology,  15. 2024.
The Dengue virus (DENV), primarily spread by Aedes aegypti and also by Aedes albopictus in some regions, poses significant global health risks. Alternative techniques are urgently needed because the current control mechanisms are insufficient to reduce the transmission of DENV. ...

An egg-sabotaging mechanism drives non-Mendelian transmission in mice

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Frances E. Clark, Naomi L. Greenberg, Duilio M.Z.A. Silva, et al,  Current Biology,  2024.
Selfish genetic elements drive in meiosis to distort their transmission ratio and increase their representation in gametes, violating Mendel’s law of segregation. The two established paradigms for meiotic drive, gamete killing and biased segregation, are fundamentally ...

Gene drives: an alternative approach to malaria control?

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Naidoo, K., Oliver, S.V.,  Gene Therapy,  2024.
Genetic modification for the control of mosquitoes is frequently touted as a solution for a variety of vector-borne diseases. There has been some success using non-insecticidal methods like sterile or incompatible insect techniques to control arbovirus diseases. However, control ...

Developing genetic tools to control the Oriental fruit fly: Potential approaches and target genes

Nouhoun Traoré, Roberto Galizi, Mahamadi Kientega, Hamidou Maïga, et al,  Journal of Applied Entomology,  2024.
The Oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis, is a pest of significant economic interest that damages horticulture and causes major economic losses worldwide. The main control measures are based on insecticides, which are being increasingly restricted due to the development of ...

Selfing Promotes Spread and Introgression of Segregation Distorters in Hermaphroditic Plants

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Hongru Wang, Léo Planche, Vladimir Shchur, Rasmus Nielsen,  Molecular Biology and Evolution,  41. 2024.
Segregation distorters (SDs) are genetic elements that distort the Mendelian segregation ratio to favor their own transmission and are able to spread even when they incur fitness costs on organisms carrying them. Depending on the biology of the host organisms and the genetic ...

Incompatible insect technique: insights on potential outcomes of releasing contaminant females: a proof of concept under semi-field conditions

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Giulia Lombardi, Elena Lampazzi, Maurizio Calvitti,  Pest Management Science,  2024.
Releasing large numbers of Aedes albopictus males, carrying the artificially introduced Wolbachia ‘wPip’ strain, results in a decrease in the reproductive capacity of wild females due to a phenomenon known as cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI). This vector control strategy ...

Wolbachia endosymbionts in Drosophila regulate the resistance to Zika virus infection in a sex dependent manner

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Ghada Tafesh-Edwards, Margarita Kyza Karaviot, Klea Markollari, et al,  Frontiers in Microbiology,  15. 2024.
Drosophila melanogaster has been used extensively for dissecting the genetic and functional bases of host innate antiviral immunity and virus-induced pathology. Previous studies have shown that the presence of Wolbachia endosymbionts in D. melanogaster confers resistance to ...

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