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.
The sterile insect technique is protected from evolution of mate discrimination
Tags: Genetic biocontrol, Modeling, Population suppression, Resistance, Sterile insect technique (SIT)J. J. Bull and R. Gomulkiewicz, PeerJ, 10:e13301. 2022.
Background The sterile insect technique (SIT) has been used to suppress and even extinguish pest insect populations. The method involves releasing artificially reared insects (usually males) that, when mating with wild individuals, sterilize the broods. If administered on a large ...
Propagation of seminal toxins through binary expression gene drives could suppress populations
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Modeling, Population suppression, Self limiting, Sex distorter, Toxin-antidoteJ. Hurtado, S. Revale and L. M. Matzkin, Scientific Reports, 12:6332. 2022.
Gene drives can be highly effective in controlling a target population by disrupting a female fertility gene. To spread across a population, these drives require that disrupted alleles be largely recessive so as not to impose too high of a fitness penalty. We argue that this ...
Mendelian nightmares: the germline-restricted chromosome of songbirds
Tags: Birds, Chromosomal drive, Selfish genetic elementsP. Borodin, A. Chen, W. Forstmeier, S. Fouché, L. Malinovskaya, Y. Pei, R. Reifová, F. J. Ruiz-Ruano, S. A. Schlebusch, M. Sotelo-Muñoz, A. Torgasheva, N. Vontzou and A. Suh, Chromosome Res, 2022.
Germline-restricted chromosomes (GRCs) are accessory chromosomes that occur only in germ cells. They are eliminated from somatic cells through programmed DNA elimination during embryo development. GRCs have been observed in several unrelated animal taxa and show peculiar modes of ...
Meiotic drive in chronic lymphocytic leukemia compared with other malignant blood disorders
Tags: Transmission distortionV. Jonsson, H. Awan, N. D. Jones, T. B. Johannesen, K. Thogersen, B. A. Steig, G. Andorsdottir and G. E. Tjonnfjord, Scientific Reports, 12:6138. 2022.
The heredity of the malignant blood disorders, leukemias, lymphomas and myeloma, has so far been largely unknown. The present study comprises genealogical investigations of one hundred and twelve Scandinavian families with unrelated parents and two or more cases of malignant ...
The non-Mendelian behavior of plant B chromosomes
Tags: Agriculture, Chromosomal drive, Selfish genetic elementsJ. Chen, J. A. Birchler and A. Houben, Chromosome Res, 2022.
B chromosomes, also known as supernumerary chromosomes, are dispensable elements in the genome of many plants, animals, and fungi. Many B chromosomes have evolved one or more drive mechanisms to transmit themselves at a higher frequency than predicted by Mendelian genetics, and ...
A homing suppression gene drive with multiplexed gRNAs maintains high drive conversion efficiency and avoids functional resistance alleles
Tags: CRISPR, Fruit fly, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Population suppression, ResistanceE. Yang, M. Metzloff, A. M. Langmuller, X. J. Xu, A. G. Clark, P. W. Messer and J. Champer, G3-Genes Genomes Genetics, 13. 2022.
Gene drives are engineered alleles that can bias inheritance in their favor, allowing them to spread throughout a population. They could potentially be used to modify or suppress pest populations, such as mosquitoes that spread diseases. CRISPR/Cas9 homing drives, which copy ...
Cas9-mediated maternal-effect and derived resistance alleles in a gene-drive strain of the African malaria vector mosquito, Anopheles gambiae
Tags: Anopheles, CRISPR, Gene drive synthetic, Population suppression, Replicator/site directed nuclease, ResistanceR. Carballar-Lejarazú, T. Tushar, T. B. Pham and A. A. James, Genetics, 2022.
CRISPR/Cas9 technologies are important tools for the development of gene-drive systems to modify mosquito vector populations to control the transmission of pathogens that cause diseases such as malaria. However, one of the challenges for current Cas9-based drive systems is their ...
A multi-disciplinary approach for a building common understanding of genetic engineering for malaria control in Burkina Faso
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Stakeholder engagement, Target malariaL. Pare Toe, N. Barry, A. D. Ky, S. Kekele, W. I. Meda, K. Bayala, et al., Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 9. 2022.
Genetic engineering is a complex topic, even for scientists working in other areas, and even more so for those who lack a formal scientific training. To help gene specialists and affected communities talk with one another, international guidance documents have been published that ...
Governing Gene Drive Technologies: A Qualitative Interview Study
Tags: Ethics, Gene drive synthetic, Governance, Policy, Stakeholder engagementN. de Graeff, K. R. Jongsma, J. E. Lunshof and A. L. Bredenoord, AJOB Empirical Bioethics, 13:107-124. 2022.
Gene drive technologies (GDTs) bias the inheritance of a genetic element within a population of non-human organisms, promoting its progressive spread across this population. If successful, GDTs may be used to counter intractable problems such as vector-borne diseases. A key issue ...
Expanding the flexibility of genome editing approaches for population control of the malaria mosquito
Tags: Anopheles, CRISPR, Gene drive synthetic, MalariaN. Kranjc, Imperial College London-PhD, 2022.
Discovery and adaptation of CRISPR-Cas systems for genome editing have allowed us to gain an efficient and yet simple tool for genetic manipulation in various fields of molecular biology and biotechnology. One of the most promising applications is the use of CRISPR-Cas9 ...
Toward a CRISPR-Cas9-Based Gene Drive in the Diamondback Moth Plutella xylostella
Tags: CRISPR, Gene drive synthetic, Moths, Replicator/site directed nucleaseX. Xu, T. Harvey-Samuel, H. A. Siddiqui, J. X. D. Ang, M. E. Anderson, C. M. Reitmayer, E. Lovett, P. T. Leftwich, M. You and L. Alphey, The CRISPR Journal, 5:224-236. 2022.
Promising to provide powerful genetic control tools, gene drives have been constructed in multiple dipteran insects, yeast, and mice for the purposes of population elimination or modification. However, it remains unclear whether these techniques can be applied to lepidopterans. ...
Overview of paratransgenesis as a strategy to control pathogen transmission by insect vectors
Tags: Gene editing, Genetic biocontrol, Other SymbiontsN. A. Ratcliffe, J. P. Furtado Pacheco, P. Dyson, H. C. Castro, M. S. Gonzalez, P. Azambuja and C. B. Mello, Parasites and Vectors, 15:112. 2022.
This article presents an overview of paratransgenesis as a strategy to control pathogen transmission by insect vectors. It first briefly summarises some of the disease-causing pathogens vectored by insects and emphasises the need for innovative control methods to counter the ...
Comparison of Ground Release and Drone-Mediated Aerial Release of Aedes aegypti Sterile Males in Southern Mexico: Efficacy and Challenges
Tags: Aedes, Genetic biocontrol, Mosquitoes, Sterile insect technique (SIT)C. F. Marina, P. Liedo, J. G. Bond, A. R. Osorio, J. Valle, R. Angulo-Kladt, Y. Gómez-Simuta, I. Fernández-Salas, A. Dor and T. Williams, Insects, 13. 2022.
Sterile males of Aedes aegypti were released once a week for 8 weeks to evaluate the dispersal efficiency of ground and aerial drone release methods in a rural village of 26 Ha in southern Mexico. Indoor and outdoor BG-Sentinel traps were placed in 13–16 houses distributed ...
Genetic Stability and Fitness of Aedes aegypti Red-Eye Genetic Sexing Strains With Pakistani Genomic Background for Sterile Insect Technique Applications
Tags: Aedes, Arbovirus, Dengue, Sterile insect technique (SIT), Vector controlM. Misbah-ul-Haq, D. O. Carvalho, L. D. de la Fuente, A. A. Augustinos and K. Bourtzis, Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 10. 2022.
The mosquito species Aedes aegypti is the primary transmitter of viruses that cause endemic diseases like dengue in Pakistan. It is also a cause of other vector-borne diseases like yellow fever, Zika fever, and chikungunya, which significantly impact human health worldwide. In ...
Prescribing engagement in environmental risk assessment for gene drive technology
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Governance, Risk assessment, Stakeholder engagementS. Hartley, A. Kokotovich and C. McCalman, Regulation and Governance, 2022.
Abstract Gene drive technology is a nascent biotechnology with the potential to purposefully alter or eliminate a species. There have been broad calls for engagement to inform gene drive governance. Over the past seven years, the gene drive community has been developing risk ...
Mathematical modelling to assess the feasibility of Wolbachia in malaria vector biocontrol
Tags: Anopheles, Modeling, Other Symbionts, WolbachiaS. Andreychuk and L. Yakob, Journal of Theoretical Biology, 542. 2022.
Releasing mosquitoes transinfected with the endosymbiotic bacterium Wolbachia is a novel strategy for interrupting vector-borne pathogen transmission. Following its success in controlling arboviruses spread by Aedes aegypti, this technology is being adapted for anopheline malaria ...
Finding the strongest gene drive: Simulations reveal unexpected performance differences between Anopheles homing suppression drive candidates
Tags: Anopheles, 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, bioRxiv, 2022.03.28.486009. 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 ...
Cytoplasmic incompatibility: A Wolbachia toxin–antidote mechanism comes into view
Tags: Cytoplasmic incompatibility, Genetic biocontrol, Toxin-antidote, WolbachiaM. Hochstrasser, Current Biology, 32:R287-R289. 2022.
The Wolbachia cidA and cidB genes promote bacterial endosymbiont inheritance through the host female germline. CidB is now shown to load into maturing sperm nuclei. Following fertilization, it disrupts paternal chromosome condensation, triggering embryonic arrest if not countered ...
B-A Chromosome Translocations Possessing an A Centromere Partly Overcome the Root-Restricted Process of Chromosome Elimination in Aegilops speltoides
Tags: Agriculture, Chromosomal drive, Selfish genetic elementsD. Li, A. Ruban, J. Fuchs, H. Kang and A. Houben, Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, 10. 2022.
Some eukaryotes exhibit dramatic genome size differences between cells of different organs, resulting from the programmed elimination of chromosomes. Aegilops speltoides is an annual diploid species from the Poaceae family, with a maximum number of eight B chromosomes (Bs) in ...
Field Suppression of Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) (Drosophila suzukii Matsumura) Using the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT)
Tags: Fruit fly, Genetic biocontrol, Sterile insect technique (SIT)R. A. Homem, Z. Mateos-Fierro, R. Jones, D. Gilbert, A. R. McKemey, G. Slade and M. T. Fountain, Insects, 13. 2022.
Drosophila suzukii (spotted wing drosophila—SWD) is an economically important pest of soft and stone fruit worldwide. Control relies on broad-spectrum insecticides, which are neither fully effective nor environmentally sustainable. The sterile insect technique (SIT) is a ...
Evolution of eukaryotic centromeres by drive and suppression of selfish genetic elements
Tags: Genetic incompatibilities, Selfish genetic elements, Transmission distortionT. Kumon and M. A. Lampson, Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology, 2022.
Despite the universal requirement for faithful chromosome segregation, eukaryotic centromeres are rapidly evolving. It is hypothesized that rapid centromere evolution represents an evolutionary arms race between selfish genetic elements that drive, or propagate at the expense of ...
Opening up, closing down, or leaving ajar? How applications are used in engaging with publics about gene drive
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Policy, Stakeholder engagementA. W. Russell, A. Stelmach, S. Hartley, L. Carter and S. Raman, Journal of Responsible Innovation, 2022.
Public engagement and responsible innovation are strongly emphasised in gene drive research, together with the goal of addressing societal challenges, notably, malaria and environmental conservation. We aim to explore whether public engagement is used to ‘open up' or ‘close ...
CRISPR-mediated knockout of cardinal and cinnabar eye pigmentation genes in the western tarnished plant bug
Tags: Agriculture, CRISPR, Gene drive syntheticC. C. Heu, R. J. Gross, K. P. Le, D. M. LeRoy, B. Fan, J. J. Hull, C. S. Brent and J. A. Fabrick, Scientific Reports, 12. 2022.
The western tarnished plant bug, Lygus hesperus, is a key hemipteran pest of numerous agricultural, horticultural, and industrial crops in the western United States and Mexico. A lack of genetic tools in L. hesperus hinders progress in functional genomics and in developing ...
An agent-based model to simulate the boosted Sterile Insect Technique for fruit fly management
Tags: Sterile insect technique (SIT)E. G. Diouf, T. Brévault, S. Ndiaye, E. Faye, A. Chailleux, P. Diatta and C. Piou, Ecological Modelling, 468:109951. 2022.
The sterile insect technique (SIT) is a method of biological control of pests and disease vector insects. It includes mass-rearing and release of sterile males of the target species so that wild females mated with sterile males would not produce offspring. An innovative version ...
Symbionts and gene drive: two strategies to combat vector-borne disease
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Genetic biocontrol, Other Symbionts, Population modification/replacement, Population suppression, WolbachiaG.-H. Wang, J. Du, C. Y. Chu, M. Madhav, G. L. Hughes and J. Champer, Trends in Genetics, 2022.
Mosquitoes bring global health problems by transmitting parasites and viruses such as malaria and dengue. Unfortunately, current insecticide-based control strategies are only moderately effective because of high cost and resistance. Thus, scalable, sustainable, and cost-effective ...
Differential viral RNA methylation contributes to pathogen blocking in Wolbachia-colonized arthropods
Tags: Aedes, Arbovirus, Genetic biocontrol, Population modification/replacement, WolbachiaT. Bhattacharya, L. Yan, J. M. Crawford, H. Zaher, I. L. G. Newton and R. W. Hardy, PLoS Pathogens, 18:e1010393. 2022.
Arthropod endosymbiont Wolbachia pipientis is part of a global biocontrol strategy to reduce the replication of mosquito-borne RNA viruses such as alphaviruses. We previously demonstrated the importance of a host cytosine methyltransferase, DNMT2, in Drosophila and viral RNA as a ...
Could species-focused suppression of Aedes aegypti, the yellow fever mosquito, and Aedes albopictus, the tiger mosquito, affect interacting predators? An evidence synthesis from the literature
Tags: Ecology, Incompatible insect technique, Policy, Regulation, Risk and safety, Sterile insect technique (SIT)J. A. S. Bonds, C. M. Collins and L.-C. Gouagna, Pest Management Science, 2022.
The risks of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus nuisance and vector-borne diseases are rising and the adverse effects of broad-spectrum insecticide application has promoted species-specific techniques, such as sterile insect technique (SIT) and other genetic strategies, as ...
Evaluation of Additional Drosophila suzukii Male-Only Strains Generated Through Remobilization of an FL19 Transgene
Tags: Fruit fly, Genetically modified organisms, Sterile insect technique (SIT)A. Yamamoto, A. K. Yadav and M. J. Scott, Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 10. 2022.
Drosophila suzukii (D. suzukii) (Matsumura, 1931; Diptera: Drosophilidae), also known as spotted wing Drosophila, is a worldwide pest of fruits with soft skins such as blueberries and cherries. Originally from Asia, D. suzukii is now present in the Americas and Europe and has ...
Modelling homing suppression gene drive in haplodiploid organisms
Tags: CRISPR, Gene drive synthetic, Modeling, Replicator/site directed nucleaseY. Liu and J. Champer, bioRxiv, 2021.10.12.464047. 2022.
Gene drives have shown great promise for suppression of pest populations. These engineered alleles can function by a variety of mechanisms, but the most common is the CRISPR homing drive, which converts wild-type alleles to drive alleles in the germline of heterozygotes. Some ...
Combining two Genetic Sexing Strains allows sorting of non-transgenic males for Aedes genetic control
Tags: Aedes, Genetic biocontrol, Genetically modified mosquitoes, Sterile insect technique (SIT)C. Lutrat, M. Burckbuchler, R. P. Olmo, R. Beugnon, A. Fontaine, T. Baldet, J. Bouyer and E. Marois, bioRxiv, 2022.03.11.483912. 2022.
Chemical control of the mosquito vectors Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti is costly, unsustainable, and increasingly ineffective due to the spread of insecticide resistance. The Sterile Insect Technique is an autocidal control tactic that represents a valuable alternative but ...
California Residents’ Perceptions of Gene Drive Systems to Control Mosquito-Borne Disease
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, North America, Stakeholder engagementC. E. Schairer, C. Triplett, O. S. Akbari and C. S. Bloss, Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 10. 2022.
Scientists developing gene drive mosquitoes for vector control must understand how residents of affected areas regard both the problem of mosquito-borne disease and the potential solutions offered by gene drive. This study represents an experiment in public engagement at an early ...
Wolbachia wAlbB inhibits bluetongue and epizootic hemorrhagic fever viruses in Culicoides midge cells
Tags: Genetic biocontrol, Population modification/replacement, WolbachiaM. L. Matthews, H. O. Covey, B. S. Drolet and C. L. Brelsfoard, Medical and Veterinary Entomology, 2022.
Abstract Culicoides midges are hematophagous insects that transmit arboviruses of veterinary importance. These viruses include bluetongue virus (BTV) and epizootic hemorrhagic fever virus (EHDV). The endosymbiont Wolbachia pipientis Hertig spreads rapidly through insect host ...
No Sting in the Tail for Sterile Bisex Queensland Fruit Fly (Bactrocera tryoni Froggatt) Release Programs
Tags: Fruit fly, Genetic biocontrol, Sterile insect technique (SIT)O. L. Reynolds, D. Collins, B. C. Dominiak and T. Osborne, Insects, 2022.
Global markets do not tolerate the presence of fruit fly (Tephritidae) in horticultural produce. A key method of control for tephritidae pests, is the sterile insect technique (SIT). Several countries release a bisex strain, i.e., males and females, however the sterile male is ...
Rescue by gene swamping as a gene drive deployment strategy
Tags: Biological control, Containment, Evolution, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Modeling, Population genetics/dynamics, Population suppression, Resistance, Risk and safetyK. D. Harris and G. Greenbaum, bioRxiv, 2022.03.08.483503. 2022.
Gene drives are genetic constructs that can spread deleterious alleles with potential application to population suppression of harmful species. Given that a gene drive can potentially spill over to other populations or even other species, control measures and fail-safes ...
Selfish migrants: How a meiotic driver is selected to increase dispersal
Tags: Ecology, Genetic biocontrol, Modeling, Rodents, Transmission distortionJ. N. Runge, H. Kokko and A. K. Lindholm, J Evol Biol, 2022.
Meiotic drivers are selfish genetic elements that manipulate meiosis to increase their transmission to the next generation to the detriment of the rest of the genome. One example is the t haplotype in house mice, which is a naturally occurring meiotic driver with deleterious ...
Gene drives and population persistence vs elimination: The impact of spatial structure and inbreeding at low density
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Genetic biocontrol, Modeling, Mosquitoes, Population suppression, Replicator/site directed nuclease, Y-chromosomeP. J. Beaghton and A. Burt, Theoretical Population Biology, 2022.
Synthetic gene drive constructs are being developed to control disease vectors, invasive species, and other pest species. In a well-mixed random mating population a sufficiently strong gene drive is expected to eliminate a target population, but it is not clear whether the same ...
EVITA Dengue: a cluster-randomized controlled trial to EValuate the efficacy of Wolbachia-InfecTed Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in reducing the incidence of Arboviral infection in Brazil
Tags: Aedes, Dengue, Field trials, Gene drive synthetic, Genetic biocontrol, WolbachiaM. H. Collins, G. E. Potter, M. D. T. Hitchings, E. Butler, M. Wiles, J. K. Kennedy, S. B. Pinto, A. B. M. Teixeira, A. Casanovas-Massana, N. G. Rouphael, G. A. Deye, C. P. Simmons, L. A. Moreira, M. L. Nogueira, D. A. T. Cummings, A. I. Ko, M. M. Teixeir, Trials, 23:185. 2022.
BACKGROUND: Arboviruses transmitted by Aedes aegypti including dengue, Zika, and chikungunya are a major global health problem, with over 2.5 billion at risk for dengue alone. There are no licensed antivirals for these infections, and safe and effective vaccines are not yet ...
Increased biting rate and decreased Wolbachia density in irradiated Aedes mosquitoes
Tags: Aedes, Genetic biocontrol, Incompatible insect technique, Mosquitoes, Sterile insect technique (SIT), WolbachiaR. Moretti, E. Lampazzi, C. Damiani, G. Fabbri, G. Lombardi, C. Pioli, A. Desiderio, A. Serrao and M. Calvitti, Parasites and Vectors, 15:67. 2022.
Releasing considerable numbers of radiation-sterilized males is a promising strategy to suppress mosquito vectors. However, releases may also include small percentages of biting females, which translate to non-negligible numbers when releases are large. Currently, the effects of ...
Regulation of genetically engineered (GE) mosquitoes as a public health tool: a public health ethics analysis
Tags: Dengue, Ethics, Gene drive synthetic, Genetically modified mosquitoes, Governance, Malaria, Policy, RegulationZ. Meghani, Globalization and Health, 18:21. 2022.
In recent years, genetically engineered (GE) mosquitoes have been proposed as a public health measure against the high incidence of mosquito-borne diseases among the poor in regions of the global South. While uncertainties as well as risks for humans and ecosystems are entailed ...
Wolbachia in Aedes koreicus: Rare Detections and Possible Implications
Tags: Aedes, WolbachiaC. Damiani, A. Cappelli, F. Comandatore, F. Montarsi, A. Serrao, A. Michelutti, M. Bertola, M. V. Mancini, I. Ricci, C. Bandi and G. Favia, Insects, 13. 2022.
The emerging distribution of new alien mosquito species was recently described in Europe. In addition to the invasion of Aedes albopictus, several studies have focused on monitoring and controlling other invasive Aedes species, as Aedes koreicus and Aedes japonicus. Considering ...
Evaluation of anti-malaria potency of wild and genetically modified Enterobacter cloacae expressing effector proteins in Anopheles stephensi
Tags: Anopheles, Genetic biocontrol, Malaria, MosquitoesH. Dehghan, S. H. Mosa-Kazemi, B. Yakhchali, N. Maleki-Ravasan, H. Vatandoost and M. A. Oshaghi, Parasites and Vectors, 15:63. 2022.
Malaria is one of the most lethal infectious diseases in tropical and subtropical areas of the world. Paratransgenesis using symbiotic bacteria offers a sustainable and environmentally friendly strategy to combat this disease. In the study reported here, we evaluated the ...
Considerations for homology-based DNA repair in mosquitoes: Impact of sequence heterology and donor template source
Tags: Aedes, CRISPR, Gene drive synthetic, Genetic biocontrol, Replicator/site directed nucleaseJ. X. D. Ang, K. Nevard, R. Ireland, D.-K. Purusothaman, S. A. N. Verkuijl, L. Shackleford, E. Gonzalez, M. A. E. Anderson and L. Alphey, PLOS Genetics, 18:e1010060. 2022.
Author summary The field of genetic control of mosquito vectors has progressed rapidly in recent years, especially in Cas9-based control systems, due to its robustness to elicit a species-specific and dispersive control of mosquito population. To generate a Cas9-based ...
Gene drive mosquitoes can aid malaria elimination by retarding Plasmodium sporogonic development
Tags: Anopheles, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Malaria, Mosquitoes, Population modification/replacementA. Hoermann, T. Habtewold, P. Selvaraj, G. Del Corsano, P. Capriotti, M. G. Inghilterra, K. M. Temesgen, G. K. Christophides and N. Windbichler, bioRxiv, 2022.02.15.480588. 2022.
Gene drives hold promise for the genetic control of malaria vectors. The development of vector population modification strategies hinges on the availability of effector mechanisms impeding parasite development in transgenic mosquitoes. We augmented a midgut gene of the malaria ...
An Ethical Overview of the CRISPR-Based Elimination of Anopheles gambiae to Combat Malaria
Tags: Anopheles, Ethics, Gene drive synthetic, Population suppression, RegulationI. J. Wise and P. Borry, Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 2022.
Approximately a quarter of a billion people around the world suffer from malaria each year. Most cases are located in sub-Saharan Africa where Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes are the principal vectors of this public health problem. With the use of CRISPR-based gene drives, the ...
A-to-I mRNA editing controls spore death induced by a fungal meiotic drive gene in homologous and heterologous expression systems
Tags: Toxin-antidote, Transmission distortion, Yeast and FungiJ. M. Lohmar, N. A. Rhoades, T. N. Patel, R. H. Proctor, T. M. Hammond and D. W. Brown, Genetics, 2022.
Spore killers are meiotic drive elements that can block development of sexual spores in fungi. In the maize ear rot and mycotoxin-producing fungus Fusarium verticillioides, a spore killer called SkK has been mapped to a 102-kb interval of chromosome V. Here, we show that a gene ...
A preliminary framework for understanding the governance of novel environmental technologies: Ambiguity, indeterminateness and drift
Tags: Ethics, Gene drive synthetic, Governance, Policy, Risk assessmentF. Rabitz, M. Feist, M. Honegger, J. Horton, S. Jinnah and J. Reynolds, Earth System Governance, 12:100134. 2022.
We propose a conceptual framework to explain why some technologies are more difficult to govern than others in global environmental governance. We start from the observation that some technologies pose transboundary environmental risks, some provide capacities for managing such ...
Hoisted with his own petard: how sex-ratio meiotic drive in Drosophila affnis creates resistance alleles that limit its spread
Tags: Fruit fly, Resistance, Sex distorter, Transmission distortionW.-J. Ma, K. B. Patch, E. M. Knoles, M. M. Shoaib and R. L. Unckless, bioRxiv, 2022.02.14.480432. 2022.
Meiotic drivers are selfish genetic elements that tinker with gameto-genesis to bias their own transmission into the next generation of off-spring. Such tinkering can have significant consequences on gameto-genesis and end up hampering the spread of the driver. In Drosophila ...
Wolbachia Impacts Anaplasma Infection in Ixodes scapularis Tick Cells
Tags: Arbovirus, Other arthropods, Other Symbionts, WolbachiaK. M. Skinner, J. Underwood, A. Ghosh, A. S. Oliva Chavez and C. L. Brelsfoard, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19. 2022.
The specific interactions of members of tick bacterial microbiota and their effects on pathogen transmission remains relatively unexplored. Here, we introduced a novel Wolbachia infection type into Ixodes scapularis tick cells and examined the antipathogenic effects on the ...
A Closing Window of Opportunity for Gene Drive Governance in the United States
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Governance, Oxitec, Population suppression, RegulationK. L. Warmbrod, M. Montague and G. K. Gronvall, Health Security, 20:3-5. 2022.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought forth a number of biotechnological advances to enhance the public's health: new diagnostic tests, mRNA vaccines, and new antiviral medications. Biotechnology is also being used to address global challenges like climate change, food insecurity, ...
Uniqueness and stability of periodic solutions for an interactive wild and Wolbachia-infected male mosquito model
Tags: Cytoplasmic incompatibility, Incompatible insect technique, Modeling, Population suppression, WolbachiaR. Yan and Q. Sun, Journal of Biological Dynamics, 2022.
We investigate a mosquito population suppression model, which includes the release of Wolbachia-infected males causing incomplete cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI). The model consists of two sub-equations by considering the density-dependent birth rate of wild mosquitoes. By ...
