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.
Cell-based analysis reveals that sex-determining gene signals in Ostrinia are pivotally changed by male-killing Wolbachia
Tags: Other arthropods, Other Symbionts, WolbachiaB. Herran, T. N. Sugimoto, K. Watanabe, S. Imanishi, T. Tsuchida, T. Matsuo, Y. Ishikawa and D. Kageyama, PNAS Nexus, pgac293. 2022.
Wolbachia, a maternally transmitted bacterium, shows male-killing, an adaptive phenotype for cytoplasmic elements, in various arthropod species during the early developmental stages. In lepidopteran insects, lethality of males is accounted for by improper dosage compensation in ...
Cryptic recessive lethality of a supergene controlling social organization in ants
Tags: GenomicsP. Blacher, O. De Gasperin, G. Grasso, S. Sarton-Lohéac, R. Allemann and M. Chapuisat, Molecular Ecology, 2022.
Supergenes are clusters of linked loci that control complex phenotypes, such as alternate forms of social organization in ants. Explaining the long-term maintenance of supergenes is challenging, particularly when the derived haplotype lacks homozygous lethality and causes gene ...
S. pombe wtf drivers use dual transcriptional regulation and selective protein exclusion from spores to cause meiotic drive
Tags: Toxin-antidote, Transmission distortion, Yeast and FungiN. L. Nuckolls, A. Nidamangala Srinivasa, A. C. Mok, R. M. Helston, M. A. Bravo Núñez, J. J. Lange, T. J. Gallagher, C. W. Seidel and S. E. Zanders, PLOS Genetics, 18:e1009847. 2022.
Author summary Genomes are often considered a collection of ‘good’ genes that provide beneficial functions for the organism. From this perspective, disease is thought to arise due to disfunction of ‘good’ genes. For example, infertility can be caused by the failure of a ...
Bioinformatic and literature assessment of toxicity and allergenicity of a CRISPR-Cas9 engineered gene drive to control the human malaria mosquito vector Anopheles gambiae
Tags: CRISPR, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Malaria, Population suppression, Risk and safetyA. Qureshi and J. B. Connolly, Malaria Journal, 2022.
Population suppression gene drive is currently being evaluated, including via environmental risk assessment (ERA), for malaria vector control. One such gene drive involves the dsxFCRISPRh transgene encoding (i) hCas9 endonuclease, (i) T1 guide RNA (gRNA) targeting the doublesex ...
Tolerance-conferring defensive symbionts and the evolution of parasite virulence
Tags: Genetic biocontrol, Modeling, Other Symbionts, Population modification/replacementC. A. Smith and B. Ashby, bioRxiv, 2022.
Defensive symbionts in the host microbiome can confer protection from infection or reduce the harms of being infected by a parasite. Defensive symbionts are therefore promising agents of biocontrol that could be used to control or ameliorate the impact of infectious diseases. ...
Deregulation of Y-linked protamine-like genes in sex chromosome-biased spermatid demise
Tags: Fruit fly, Sex distorter, Transmission distortionJ. I. Park, G. W. Bell and Y. M. Yamashita, bioRxiv, 2022.
Meiotic drive is a phenomenon wherein a genetic element achieves a higher rate of transmission than dictated by Mendelian segregation (1-3). One proposed mechanism for meiotic drivers to achieve biased transmission is by sabotaging essential processes of gametogenesis (e.g. ...
A mass rearing cost calculator for the control of Culex quinquefasciatus in Hawaiʻi using the incompatible insect technique
Tags: Culex, Incompatible insect technique, Sterile insect technique (SIT)A. E. Vorsino and Z. Xi, Parasites and Vectors, 15:453. 2022.
Hawaiʻi’s native forest avifauna is experiencing drastic declines due to climate change-induced increases in temperature encroaching on their upper-elevation montane rainforest refugia. Higher temperatures support greater avian malaria infection rates due to greater densities ...
Meiotic transmission patterns of additional genomic elements in Brachionus asplanchnoidis, a rotifer with intraspecific genome size variation
Tags: Genetic engineering, Selfish genetic elements, Transmission distortionJ. Blommaert and C.-P. Stelzer, Scientific Reports, 12:20900. 2022.
Intraspecific genome size (GS) variation in Eukaryotes is often mediated by additional, nonessential genomic elements. Physically, such additional elements may be represented by supernumerary (B-)chromosomes or by large heterozygous insertions into the regular chromosome set. ...
Determining the landscape of resistance to gene drives in the malaria mosquito
Tags: Anopheles, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Malaria, ResistanceI. Morianou, Imperial College London, 2022.
Gene drives are engineered selfish genetic elements with the potential to spread throughout entire insect populations for sustainable vector control. Recently, a gene drive was shown to eliminate caged populations of the malaria mosquito by targeting the highly conserved ...
A comprehensive overview of the existing microbial symbionts in mosquito vectors: An important tool for impairing pathogentransmission
Tags: Anopheles, Malaria, Mosquitoes, Other SymbiontsV. Vandana, M. P. Kona, J. Kumar, O. P. Singh and K. C. Pandey, Experimental Parasitology, 243. 2022.
The emergence of drug-resistant parasites and/or insecticide-resistant mosquito vectors necessitates developing alternative tools that either supplement or replace the conventional malaria control strategies. Trans-infecting the mosquito vector with symbionts that can either ...
Meiotic drive adaptive testes enlargement during early development in the stalk-eyed fly
Tags: Sex distorter, Transmission distortionS. L. Bradshaw, L. Meade, J. Tarlton-Weatherall and A. Pomiankowski, Biology Letters, 18:20220352. 2022.
The sex ratio (SR) X-linked meiotic drive system in stalk-eyed flies destroys Y-bearing sperm. Unlike other SR systems, drive males do not suffer fertility loss. They have greatly enlarged testes which compensate for gamete killing. We predicted that enlarged testes arise from ...
Does severe hypoxia during irradiation of Aedes aegypti pupae improve sterile male performance?
Tags: Aedes, Genetic biocontrol, Sterile insect technique (SIT)D. A. Tussey, K. J. Linthicum and D. A. Hahn, Parasites and Vectors, 15:446. 2022.
The yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti, vectors several pathogens responsible for human diseases. As a result, this mosquito species is a priority for control by mosquito control districts in Florida. With insecticide resistance development becoming a concern, alternative ...
Engineering stringent genetic biocontainment of yeast with a protein stability switch
Tags: Containment, Genetic incompatibilities, Synthetic biology, Yeast and FungiS. A. Hoffmann and Y. Cai, bioRxiv, 2022.11.24.517818. 2022.
Synthetic biology holds immense promise to tackle key problems we are facing, for instance in resource use, environmental health, and human health care. However, comprehensive safety measures are needed to deploy genetically engineered microorganisms in open-environment ...
Developing radiation-based sterile insect technique (SIT) for controlling Aedes aegypti: identification of a sterilizing dose
Tags: Aedes, Sterile insect technique (SIT)C. Chen, R. L. Aldridge, S. Gibson, J. Kline, V. Aryaprema, W. Qualls, R.-d. Xue, L. Boardman, K. J. Linthicum and D. A. Hahn, Pest Management Science, 2022.
Abstract Background The sterile insect technique (SIT) is emerging as a tool to supplement traditional pesticide-based control of Aedes aegypti, a prominent mosquito vector of microbes that have increased the global burden of human morbidity and mortality over the past 50?years. ...
Modeling-informed Engineered Genetic Incompatibility strategies to overcome resistance in the invasive Drosophila suzukii
Tags: Fruit fly, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Genetic incompatibilities, Modeling, UnderdominanceA. Sychla, N. R. Feltman, W. D. Hutchison and M. J. Smanski, Frontiers in Insect Science, 2. 2022.
Engineered Genetic Incompatibility (EGI) is an engineered extreme underdominance genetic system wherein hybrid animals are not viable, functioning as a synthetic speciation event. There are several strategies in which EGI could be leveraged for genetic biocontrol of pest ...
A CRISPR endonuclease gene drive reveals distinct mechanisms of inheritance bias
Tags: Aedes, CRISPR, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Replicator/site directed nucleaseS. A. N. Verkuijl, E. Gonzalez, M. Li, J. X. D. Ang, N. P. Kandul, M. A. E. Anderson, O. S. Akbari, M. B. Bonsall and L. Alphey, Nature Communications, 13:7145. 2022.
CRISPR/Cas gene drives can bias transgene inheritance through different mechanisms. Homing drives are designed to replace a wild-type allele with a copy of a drive element on the homologous chromosome. In Aedes aegypti, the sex-determining locus is closely linked to the white ...
The effect of mating complexity on gene drive dynamics
Tags: Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Modeling, Population genetics/dynamics, Population suppressionP. Verma, R. G. Reeves, S. Simon, M. Otto and C. S. Gokhale, The American Naturalist, 2022.
Gene drive technology promises to deliver on some of the global challenges humanity faces today in health care, agriculture, and conservation. However, there is a limited understanding of the consequences of releasing self-perpetuating transgenic organisms into wild populations ...
Driving lessons: a brief (personal) history of centromere drive
Tags: History, Transmission distortionH. S. Malik, Genetics, 2022.
Meiosis is an important specialized cell division in many eukaryotic species, including fungi, plants, and animals. Meiosis results in the production of haploid gametes starting from a diploid cell via 1 round of replication and 2 rounds of cell division. In an influential ...
CRISPR-Mediated Cassette Exchange (CriMCE): A Method to Introduce and Isolate Precise Marker-Less Edits
Tags: CRISPR, Gene drive, Gene drive syntheticI. Morianou, A. Crisanti, T. Nolan and A. M. Hammond, The CRISPR Journal, 2022.
The introduction of small unmarked edits to the genome of insects is essential to study the molecular underpinnings of important biological traits, such as resistance to insecticides and genetic control strategies. Advances in CRISPR genome engineering have made this possible, ...
A Wolbachia factor for male killing in lepidopteran insects
Tags: Moths, Other Symbionts, WolbachiaS. Katsuma, K. Hirota, N. Matsuda-Imai, T. Fukui, T. Muro, K. Nishino, H. Kosako, K. Shoji, H. Takanashi, T. Fujii, S.-i. Arimura and T. Kiuchi, Nature Communications, 13:6764. 2022.
Bacterial symbionts, such as Wolbachia species, can manipulate the sexual development and reproduction of their insect hosts. For example, Wolbachia infection induces male-specific death in the Asian corn borer Ostrinia furnacalis by targeting the host factor Masculinizer (Masc), ...
Independent evaluation of Wolbachia infected male mosquito releases for control of Aedes aegypti in Harris County, Texas, using a Bayesian abundance estimator
Tags: Aedes, Cytoplasmic incompatibility, Population suppression, WolbachiaS. Lozano, K. Pritts, D. Duguma, C. Fredregill and R. Connelly, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 16:e0010907. 2022.
Among disease vectors, Aedes aegypti (L.) (Diptera: Culicidae) is one of the most insidious species in the world. The disease burden created by this species has dramatically increased in the past 50 years, and during this time countries have relied on pesticides for control and ...
Centromere drive: chromatin conflict in meiosis
Tags: Transmission distortionP. Talbert and S. Henikoff, Current Opinion in Genetics and Development, 77:102005. 2022.
Centromeres are essential loci in eukaryotes that are necessary for the faithful segregation of chromosomes in mitosis and meiosis. Centromeres organize the kinetochore, the protein machine that attaches sister chromatids or homologous chromosomes to spindle microtubules and ...
Influence of public hesitancy and receptivity on reactive behaviours towards releases of male Wolbachia-Aedes mosquitoes for dengue control
Tags: Aedes, Policy, Stakeholder engagement, WolbachiaM. O. Lwin, Z. Ong, C. Panchapakesan, A. Sheldenkar, L. T. Soh, I. Chen, X. Li, W. Niah, K. Vasquez, S. Sim and L.-C. Ng, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 16:e0010910. 2022.
Singapore, a highly urbanized Asian tropical country that experiences periodic dengue outbreaks, is piloting field releases of male Wolbachia-carrying Aedes aegyptimosquitoes with the aim of suppressing urban populations of the primary dengue vector Aedes aegypti. This study ...
Wolbachia inhibits ovarian formation and increases blood feeding rate in female Aedes aegypti
Tags: Aedes, Other Symbionts, WolbachiaM.-J. Lau, P. A. Ross, N. M. Endersby-Harshman, Q. Yang and A. A. Hoffmann, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 16:e0010913. 2022.
Author summary Wolbachia bacteria reduce the transmission of dengue and other arboviruses transmitted by their mosquito hosts once they have invaded host populations. This invasion process is being undertaken in Aedes aegypti mosquito populations throughout the world but can be ...
Leveraging a natural murine meiotic drive to suppress invasive populations
Tags: Biodiversity/Conservation, CRISPR, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Genetic biocontrol, Modeling, Population suppression, Rodents, Transmission distortionL. Gierus, A. Birand, M. D. Bunting, G. I. Godahewa, S. G. Piltz, K. P. Oh, A. J. Piaggio, D. W. Threadgill, J. Godwin, O. Edwards, P. Cassey, J. V. Ross, T. A. A. Prowse and P. Q. Thomas, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119:e2213308119. 2022.
Invasive rodents are a major cause of environmental damage and biodiversity loss, particularly on islands. Unlike insects, genetic biocontrol strategies including population-suppressing gene drives with biased inheritance have not been developed in mice. Here, we demonstrate a ...
Gene drive technologies: navigating the ethical landscape
Tags: Ethics, Gene drive, Gene editing, GovernanceN. d. Graeff, Utrecht University, 2022.
Gene drives are technologies that modify a particular genetic element in animals or insects so that this genetic element does not follow the typical rules of heredity, and is passed onto future generations with an increased likelihood. Gene drive technologies could be used to ...
Making waves: Comparative analysis of gene drive spread characteristics in a continuous space model
Tags: Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, ModelingM. Pan and J. Champer, bioRxiv, 2022.11.01.514650. 2022.
With their ability to rapidly increase in frequency, gene drives can be used to modify or suppress target populations after an initial release of drive-containing individuals. Recent advances in this field have revealed many possibilities for different types of drives, and ...
Asymmetric Inheritance: The Diversity and Evolution of Non-Mendelian Reproductive Strategies
L. Ross, A. J. Mongue, C. N. Hodson and T. Schwander, Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 53:1-23. 2022.The ability to reproduce is the key trait that distinguishes living organisms from inorganic matter, and the strategies used to achieve successful reproduction are almost as diverse as the organisms themselves. In animals, the most widespread form of reproduction involves ...
GMOs in Africa: Status, adoption and public acceptance
Tags: Africa, Genetic engineering, Policy, Regulation, Risk and safetyL. A. Gbadegesin, E. A. Ayeni, C. K. Tettey, V. A. Uyanga, O. O. Aluko, J. K. Ahiakpa, C. O. Okoye, J. I. Mbadianya, M. A. Adekoya, R. O. Aminu, F. P. Oyawole and P. Odufuwa, Food Control, 141:109193. 2022.
Globally, genetically modified (GM) crops contribute to food security by increasing crop yield, quality and shelf-life. The commercialisation and adoption of GM crops in many developed countries raised hope of improving food security and livelihood. Africa, a developing continent ...
A sterile insect technique pilot trial on Captiva Island: defining mosquito population parameters for sterile male releases using mark–release–recapture
Tags: Aedes, Genetic biocontrol, North America, Sterile insect technique (SIT)D. O. Carvalho, R. Morreale, S. Stenhouse, D. A. Hahn, M. Gomez, A. Lloyd and D. Hoel, Parasites and Vectors, 15:405. 2022.
The sterile insect technique (SIT), which involves area-wide inundative releases of sterile insects to suppress the reproduction of a target species, has proven to be an effective pest control method. The technique demands the continuous release of sterilized insects in ...
Modeling the efficacy of CRISPR gene drive for snail immunity on schistosomiasis control
Tags: Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Modeling, Other invertebrates, Replicator/site directed nucleaseR. E. Grewelle, J. Perez-Saez, J. Tycko, E. K. O. Namigai, C. G. Rickards and G. A. De Leo, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 16:e0010894. 2022.
CRISPR gene drives could revolutionize the control of infectious diseases by accelerating the spread of engineered traits that limit parasite transmission in wild populations. Gene drive technology in mollusks has received little attention despite the role of freshwater snails as ...
Gene drive by Fusarium SKC1 is dependent on its competing allele
Tags: Toxin-antidote, Yeast and FungiJ. M. Lohmar, N. A. Rhoades, T. M. Hammond and D. W. Brown, Fungal Genetics and Biology, 163:103749. 2022.
The Fusarium verticillioides SKC1 gene driver is transmitted to offspring in a biased manner through spore killing. The mechanism that allows SKC1 to kill non-SKC1 offspring while sparing others is poorly understood. Here we report that gene drive by SKC1 is dependent on SKC1's ...
Expression of mosquito miRNAs in entomopathogenic fungus induces pathogen-mediated host RNA interference and increases fungal efficacy
Tags: Genetic biocontrol, MosquitoesC. Cui, Y. Wang, Y. Li, P. Sun, J. Jiang, H. Zhou, J. Liu and S. Wang, Cell Reports, 41:111527. 2022.
Summary The growing threat of insecticide resistance prompts the urgent need to develop additional tools for mosquito control. Entomopathogenic fungi provide an eco-friendly alternative to chemical insecticides. One limitation to the use of mycoinsecticides is their relatively ...
Cross-kingdom RNAi to enhance the efficacy of insect pathogens
Tags: Genetic biocontrol, Genetic engineering, MosquitoesS. Asgari, Trends in Parasitology, 2022.
Insect pathogens play significant roles in the biocontrol of medical and agricultural pests. Cui et al. demonstrated that genetically modified (GM) fungi expressing host mosquito miRNAs could enhance the efficacy of the fungus by suppressing the host immune response. This opens ...
Monotonicity properties arising in a simple model of Wolbachia invasion for wild mosquito populations
Tags: Aedes, Modeling, Population suppression, WolbachiaD. Vicencio, O. Vasilieva and P. Gajardo, Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering, 20:1148-1175. 2022.
Using tools borrowed from monotone dynamical system theory, in the proposed model, we prove the existence of an invariant threshold manifold that allows us to provide practical recommendations for performing single and periodic releases of Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes, seeking ...
Pulled, pushed or failed: the demographic impact of a gene drive can change the nature of its spatial spread
Tags: Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, ModelingL. Kläy, L. Girardin, V. Calvez and F. Débarre, arXiv, 2022.
Understanding the temporal spread of gene drive alleles -- alleles that bias their own transmission -- through modeling is essential before any field experiments. In this paper, we present a deterministic reaction-diffusion model describing the interplay between demographic and ...
New self-sexing Aedes aegypti strain eliminates barriers to scalable and sustainable vector control for governments and communities in dengue-prone environments
Tags: Aedes, Dengue, Genetically modified mosquitoes, OxitecS. A. M. Spinner, Z. H. Barnes, A. M. Puinean, P. Gray, T. Dafa’alla, C. E. Phillips, C. Nascimento de Souza, T. F. Frazon, K. Ercit, A. Collado, N. Naish, E. Sulston, G. C. Ll. Phillips, K. K. Greene, M. Poletto, B. D. Sperry, S. A. Warner, N. R. Rose, G, Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 10. 2022.
For more than 60 years, efforts to develop mating-based mosquito control technologies have largely failed to produce solutions that are both effective and scalable, keeping them out of reach of most governments and communities in disease-impacted regions globally. High pest ...
Combining transgenesis with paratransgenesis to fight malaria
Tags: Anopheles, Gene editing, Genetic biocontrol, Genetically modified mosquitoes, Malaria, Other SymbiontsW. Huang, J. Vega-Rodriguez, C. Kizito, S.-J. Cha and M. Jacobs-Lorena, eLife, 11:e77584. 2022.
Malaria is among the deadliest infectious diseases, and Plasmodium, the causative agent, needs to complete a complex development cycle in its vector mosquito for transmission to occur. Two promising strategies to curb transmission are transgenesis, consisting of genetically ...
Ethics of gene drive mosquitoes for malaria elimination
Tags: Ethics, Policy, Stakeholder engagement, Synthetic biologyA. J. Roberts, McMaster University, 2022.
This thesis is concerned with presenting analyses regarding key ethical issues regarding and arising from the development and potential use of gene drive modified mosquitoes for the purpose of malaria elimination. Each of the chapters constituting this thesis offers a rigorously ...
Hidden endosymbionts: A male-killer concealed by another endosymbiont and a nuclear suppressor
Tags: Cytoplasmic incompatibility, Fruit fly, Other Symbionts, WolbachiaK. M. Richardson, P. A. Ross, B. S. Cooper, W. R. Conner, T. Schmidt and A. A. Hoffmann, bioRxiv, 2022.10.19.512817. 2022.
Maternally transmitted endosymbiotic bacteria that cause male killing (MK) have only been described from a few insects, but this may reflect challenges in their detection rather than a rarity of MK. Here we identify MK Wolbachia in populations of Drosophila pseudotakahashii, ...
Hurdles in responsive community engagement for the development of environmental biotechnologies
Tags: Ethics, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Policy, Stakeholder engagement, Synthetic biologyA. M. Normandin, L. M. Fitzgerald, J. Yip and S. W. Evans, Synthetic Biology, 7:ysac022. 2022.
Recent calls for engaging communities in biotechnology development do not draw enough attention to the hurdles that must be overcome for engagement strategies to effectively feed back into research design and conduct. These hurdles call into question many standard ways of ...
Driving down malaria transmission with engineered gene drives
Tags: Anopheles, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Genetic biocontrol, MalariaW. T. Garrood, P. Cuber, K. Willis, F. Bernardini, N. M. Page and R. E. Haghighat-Khah, Frontiers in Genetics, 13. 2022.
The last century has witnessed the introduction, establishment and expansion of mosquito-borne diseases into diverse new geographic ranges. Malaria is transmitted by female Anopheles mosquitoes. Despite making great strides over the past few decades in reducing the burden of ...
Mosquito Gene Drives and the Malaria Eradication Agenda
Tags: Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Genetic biocontrol, MalariaEditor: R. Carballar-Lejarazu,, Jenny Stanford Publishing, 2022.
Malaria is one of most serious infectious diseases today and has afflicted humankind for thousands of years. A significant number of people still die from this mosquito-borne disease, despite the use of various malaria prevention and control methods over hundreds of years and ...
Assessing single-locus CRISPR/Cas9-based gene drive variants in the mosquito Aedes aegypti via single generation crosses and modeling
Tags: Aedes, CRISPR, Dengue, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Replicator/site directed nucleaseW. Reid, A. E. Williams, I. Sanchez-Vargas, J. Lin, R. Juncu, K. E. Olson and A. W. E. Franz, G3 Genes|Genomes|Genetics, 2022.
Critical to the design of a single-locus autonomous GD is that the selected genomic locus is amenable to both GD and appropriate expression of the antiviral effector. In our study, we used reverse engineering to target two intergenic genomic loci, which had previously shown to be ...
Introgression of a synthetic sex ratio distortion transgene into different genetic backgrounds of Anopheles coluzzii
Tags: Anopheles, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Sex distorter, X chromosomeP. Pollegioni, T. Persampieri, R. L. Minuz, A. Bucci, A. Trusso, S. Di Martino, C. Leo, M. Bruttini, M. Ciolfi, A. M. Waldvogel, F. Tripet, A. Simoni, A. Crisanti and R. Müller, Insect Molecular Biology, 2022.
The development of genetically modified mosquitoes (GMM) and their subsequent field release offers innovative approaches for vector control of malaria. A non-gene drive self-limiting male-bias Ag(PMB)1 strain has been developed in a 47-year-old laboratory G3 strain of Anopheles ...
Anopheles homing suppression drive candidates exhibit unexpected performance differences in simulations with spatial structure
Tags: Anopheles, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Modeling, Population suppression, Replicator/site directed nuclease, X chromosomeS. E. Champer, I. K. Kim, A. G. Clark, P. W. Messer and J. Champer, eLife, 11:e79121. 2022.
Recent experiments have produced several Anopheles gambiae homing gene drives that disrupt female fertility genes, thereby eventually inducing population collapse. Such drives may be highly effective tools to combat malaria. One such homing drive, based on the zpg promoter ...
Wolbachia wAlbB inhibit dengue and Zika infection in the mosquito Aedes aegypti with an Australian background
Tags: Aedes, Dengue, Population modification/replacement, WolbachiaL. E. Hugo, G. Rašić, A. J. Maynard, L. Ambrose, C. Liddington, C. J. E. Thomas, N. S. Nath, M. Graham, C. Winterford, B. M. C. R. Wimalasiri-Yapa, Z. Xi, N. W. Beebe and G. J. Devine, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 16:e0010786. 2022.
Biological control of mosquito vectors using the endosymbiotic bacteria Wolbachia is an emerging strategy for the management of human arboviral diseases. We recently described the development of a strain of Aedes aegypti infected with the Wolbachia strain wAlbB (referred to as ...
The wtf meiotic driver gene family has unexpectedly persisted for over 100 million years
Tags: Evolution, Selfish genetic elements, Transmission distortion, Yeast and FungiM. De Carvalho, G. S. Jia, A. Nidamangala Srinivasa, R. B. Billmyre, Y. H. Xu, J. J. Lange, I. M. Sabbarini, L. L. Du and S. E. Zanders, eLife, 11. 2022.
Meiotic drivers are selfish elements that bias their own transmission into more than half of the viable progeny produced by a driver+/driver- heterozygote. Meiotic drivers are thought to exist for relatively short evolutionary timespans because a driver gene or gene family is ...
Risk Assessment on the Release of Wolbachia-Infected Aedes aegypti in Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Tags: Aedes, Dengue, Policy, Population modification/replacement, Risk assessment, WolbachiaD. Buchori, A. Mawan, I. Nurhayati, A. Aryati, H. Kusnanto and U. K. Hadi, Insects, 13. 2022.
Wolbachia-infected Aedes aegypti is the latest technology that was developed to eliminate dengue fever. The Ministry of Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia (Kemenristekdikti) established an expert group to identify future potential risks that may occur over a ...
Improvement of Resistance in Plants Against Insect-Pests Using Genome Editing Tools
Tags: Agriculture, Gene drive, Gene drive syntheticS. Bhat and S. Kumar, Genome Editing: Current Technology Advances and Applications for Crop Improvement, 2022.
During growth period plants are subjected to both biotic and abiotic stresses. Like other biotic stresses, insect-pests are the most serious challenge for the plants particularly in yield losses. Genome editing techniques are becoming an emerging technology bringing real ...
