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.
Gene drives and the management of agricultural pests
Tags: Agriculture, Gene drive synthetic, Risk and safety, Risk assessment, Stakeholder engagementR. F. Medina, Journal of Responsible Innovation, 5:S255-S262. 2018.
Like all pest control strategies, gene drives are not hazard-free. Ecological risk assessment of gene drives designed to control agricultural pests should be conducted before their deployment. The present commentary provides some thoughts on some of the issues one should consider ...
Summary
Tags: Agriculture, Biodiversity/Conservation, Gene drive synthetic, Policy, Risk and safety, Risk assessment, Stakeholder engagementCommittee on Gene Drive Research in Non-Human Organisms: Recommendations for Responsible, Journal of Responsible Innovation, 5:S243-S254. 2018.
Scientists have studied gene drives for more than 50 years. The development of a powerful genome editing tool in 2012, CRISPR/Cas9,1 led to recent breakthroughs in gene drive research that built on that half century’s worth of knowledge, and stimulated new discussion of the ...
Anomaly handling and the politics of gene drives
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Governance, Policy, Regulation, Stakeholder engagementS. W. Evans and M. J. Palmer, Journal of Responsible Innovation, 5:S223-S242. 2018.
Decisions about the development and use of gene drives are framing broader debates about the need for fundamental changes to biotechnology regulatory systems. We summarize this debate and describe how gene drives are being constructed as potential anomalies within the regulatory ...
Regulating animals with gene drive systems: lessons from the regulatory assessment of a genetically engineered mosquito
Tags: Ethics, Gene drive synthetic, Genetically modified organisms, Policy, Regulation, Risk assessmentZ. Meghani and J. Kuzma, Journal of Responsible Innovation, 5:S203-S222. 2018.
In this paper, we consider the question of whether the United States Food and Drug Administration is prepared to effectively regulate insects and other animals with gene drives. Given the profound impact that gene drives could have on species and ecosystems, their use is a ...
Developing gene drive technologies to eradicate invasive rodents from islands
Tags: Biodiversity/Conservation, Gene drive synthetic, Rodents, Transmission distortionC. M. Leitschuh, D. Kanavy, G. A. Backus, R. X. Valdez, M. Serr, E. A. Pitts, D. Threadgill and J. Godwin, Journal of Responsible Innovation, 5:S121-S138. 2018.
Gene drive methods of rodent eradication offer an alternative to killing that has the potential to be more species-specific, more humane, and more biologically safe for use around humans. Implementing this technology would involve releasing laboratory-developed engineered mice ...
Agricultural production: assessment of the potential use of Cas9-mediated gene drive systems for agricultural pest control
Tags: Agriculture, Gene drive synthetic, Genetic biocontrol, Sterile insect technique (SIT)M. J. Scott, F. Gould, M. Lorenzen, N. Grubbs, O. Edwards and D. O’Brochta, Journal of Responsible Innovation, 5:S98-S120. 2018.
To highlight how gene drives could be useful for control of agricultural insect pests, we selected species that are pests of animals (New World screwworm), plants (spotted wing Drosophila, diamondback moth, Bemisia tabaci whitefly), or stored grains (red flour beetle). We ...
A roadmap for gene drives: using institutional analysis and development to frame research needs and governance in a systems context
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Governance, Policy, Regulation, Stakeholder engagementJ. Kuzma, F. Gould, Z. Brown, J. Collins, J. Delborne, E. Frow, K. Esvelt, D. Guston, C. Leitschuh, K. Oye and S. Stauffer, Journal of Responsible Innovation, 5:S13-S39. 2018.
This paper reports on a workshop held in February 2016 to explore the complex intersection of political, economic, ethical, and ecological risk issues associated with gene drives. Workshop participants were encouraged to use systems thinking and mapping to describe the ...
Mapping research and governance needs for gene drives
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Governance, Policy, Regulation, Stakeholder engagementJ. Delborne, J. Kuzma, F. Gould, E. Frow, C. Leitschuh and J. Sudweeks, Journal of Responsible Innovation, 5:S4-S12. 2018.
This special issue represents both deep and broad thinking about gene drives. The papers were first drafted nearly two years ago, and since then have been reviewed and revised to flesh out key arguments and take account of ongoing developments in the field. This field has moved ...
Gene drives and the expanding horizon of governance
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Governance, Policy, Regulation, Stakeholder engagementE. Fisher, Journal of Responsible Innovation, 5:S1-S3. 2018.
Like other areas of emerging science and technology that trigger prolonged public debate over their transformative prospects, gene drives simultaneously generate prospects for new knowledge, hoped-for benefits, and formidable concerns. Their ability to bias inheritance of and in ...
A Framework for the risk assessment and management of gene drive technology in contained use
Tags: Birds, Other arthropods, Other mammals, Risk and safetyvan der Vlugt, CJBB, David D.; Lehmann, Kathleen; Leunda, Amaya; Willemarck, Nicolas, Applied Biosafety, 23:25-31. 2018.
The utilisation of the CRISPR/Cas9 technology has sparked a renewed interest in gene drive mechanisms. These mechanisms of biased inheritance may yield promising applications in the fields of vector control and nature conservation. However, the same properties that will enable ...
Gene drive to reduce malaria transmission in sub-Saharan Africa
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Genetics, Malaria, Mosquitoes, Other arthropods, Replicator/site directed nuclease, Toxin-antidote, Transmission distortion, X chromosome, Y-chromosomeBurt, AC, Mamadou; Crisanti, Andrea; Diabate, Abdoulaye; Kayondo, Jonathan K., Journal of Responsible Innovation, 5:S66-S80. 2018.
Despite impressive progress, malaria continues to impose a substantial burden of mortality and morbidity, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, and new tools will be needed to achieve elimination. Gene drive is a natural process by which some genes are inherited at a ...
Safe Driving: CRISPR and the Gene Drive Landscape
Tags: Gene drive syntheticNolan, T, CRISPR Journal, 1:16-18. 2018.
A New Study Highlights Issues About the Capability to Limit Gene Drives in the Field to a Target Population
Using gene drive technologies to control vector-borne infectious diseases
Tags: Risk and safetyJames, ST, K. H., Sustainability, 10:4789. 2018.
After years of success in reducing the global malaria burden, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently reported that progress has stalled. Over 90% of malaria deaths world-wide occurred in the WHO African Region. New tools are needed to regain momentum and further decrease ...
Current CRISPR gene drive systems are likely to be highly invasive in wild populations
Tags: CRISPR, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Risk and safetyNoble, CA, Ben; Church, George M.; Esvelt, Kevin M.; Nowak, Martin A., eLife, 7:e33423. 2018.
Recent reports have suggested that self-propagating CRISPR-based gene drive systems are unlikely to efficiently invade wild populations due to drive-resistant alleles that prevent cutting. Here we develop mathematical models based on existing empirical data to explicitly test ...
Means and ends of effective global risk assessments for genetic pest management
Tags: Ethics, Gene drive synthetic, Policy, Regulation, Risk and safetyTurner, GB, Camilla; Roda, Lucia, BMC Proceedings, 12:13. 2018.
The development and use of genetic technologies is regulated by countries according to their national laws and governance structures. Legal frameworks require comprehensive technical evidence to be submitted by an applicant on the biology of the organism, its safety to human, ...
Pathway to deployment of gene drive mosquitoes as a potential biocontrol tool for elimination of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa: Recommendations of a scientific working group
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Other arthropods, Risk and safetyJames, SC, Frank H.; Welkhoff, Philip A.; Emerson, Claudia; Godfray, H. Charles J.; Gottlieb, Michael; Greenwood, Brian; Lindsay, Steve W.; Mbogo, Charles M.; Okumu, Fredros O.; Quemada, Hector; Savadogo, Moussa; Singh, Jerome A.; Tountas, Karen H.; Touré, American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 98:1-49. 2018.
Gene drive technology offers the promise for a high-impact, cost-effective, and durable method to control malaria transmission that would make a significant contribution to elimination. Gene drive systems, such as those based on clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic ...
Synthetically engineered Medea gene drive system in the worldwide crop pest Drosophila suzukii
Tags: Evolution, Gene drive synthetic, Other arthropods, Toxin-antidoteBuchman, AM, John M.; Ostrovski, Dennis; Yang, Ting; Akbari, Omar S., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 115:4725-4730. 2018.
Here we describe a fully functional gene drive system constructed in a major worldwide crop pest, Drosophila suzukii. This system is composed of a synthetic Medea drive with a maternal miRNA “toxin” and a zygotic “antidote,” and we demonstrate that it can bias inheritance ...
Development of community of practice to support quantitative risk assessment for synthetic biology products: contaminant bioremediation and invasive carp control as cases
Tags: Ethics, Policy, Regulation, Risk and safetyTrump, BF, C.; Rycroft, T.; Wood, M. D.; Bandolin, N.; Cains, M.; Cary, T.; Crocker, F.; Friedenberg, N. A.; Gurian, P.; Hamilton, K.; Hoover, J.J.; Meyer, C.; Pokrzywinski, K.; Ritterson, R.; Schulte, P.; Warner, C. ; Perkins, E.; Linkov, I., Environmental Systems and Decisions, 38:517-527. 2018.
Synthetic biology has the potential for a broad array of applications. However, realization of this potential is challenged by the paucity of relevant data for conventional risk assessment protocols, a limitation due to to the relative nascence of the field, as well as the poorly ...
Engineered Reciprocal Chromosome Translocations Drive High Threshold, Reversible Population Replacement in Drosophila
Tags: Dengue, Gene drive, Gene drive mechanisms, Gene drive synthetic, Malaria, Other arthropods, Selfish genetic elements, Underdominance, Vector controlBuchman, ABI, Tobin; Marshall, John M.; Akbari, Omar S.; Hay, Bruce A., ACS Synthetic Biology, 7:1359-1370. 2018.
Replacement of wild insect populations with transgene-bearing individuals unable to transmit disease or survive under specific environmental conditions using gene drive provides a self-perpetuating method of disease prevention. Mechanisms that require the gene drive element and ...
Population seasonality and release timing significantly affect the probability of establishment for small releases of gene drive mosquitoes
Tags: Ecology, Gene drive synthetic, MosquitoesNikolov, MO, A. L.; Beaghton, A. K.; Beaghton, P. J.; Wenger, E. A.; Burt, A.; Welkhoff, P. A., American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 99:367-367. 2018.
Highly efficient CRISPR/Cas9 gene-drive systems have recently been developed, targeting reproductive-capacity and malaria-competency loci of malaria transmitting vector species, such as An. gambiae. The resulting drive systems aim to either suppress the local wild-type population ...
The impact of releasing sterile mosquitoes on malaria transmission
Tags: MalariaHongyan, YC, Yang; Xin'an, Zhang; Jia, Li, Discrete & Continuous Dynamical Systems - B, 23:3837-3853. 2018.
The sterile mosquitoes technique in which sterile mosquitoes are released to reduce or eradicate the wild mosquito population has been used in preventing the malaria transmission. To study the impact of releasing sterile mosquitoes on the malaria transmission, we first formulate ...
Developing standard operating procedures for gene drive research in disease vector mosquitoes
Tags: Containment, Gene drive synthetic, Regulation, Risk and safetyZ. N. Adelman, D. Pledger and K. M. Myles, Pathogens and Global Health, 111:436-447. 2018.
Here we discuss information to be considered by principal investigators, biosafety officers, and institutional biosafety committees as they work together to develop SOPs for experiments involving gene drive in arthropods, and describe various courses of action that can be used ...
Engineered integrative and conjugative elements for efficient and inducible DNA transfer to undomesticated bacteria
Tags: Ecology, Gene drive mechanisms, Gene drive synthetic, Other SymbiontsBrophy, JANT, Alexander J.; Adams, Bryn L.; Renberg, Rebecca L.; Stratis-Cullum, Dimitra N.; Grossman, Alan D.; Voigt, Christopher A., Nature Microbiology, 3:1043-1053. 2018.
Engineering microorganisms to promote human or plant health will require manipulation of robust bacteria that are capable of surviving in harsh, competitive environments. Genetic engineering of undomesticated bacteria can be limited by an inability to transfer DNA into the cell. ...
Evaluating active genetic options for the control of Sea Lampreys (Petromyzon marinus) in the Laurentian Great Lakes
Tags: Biodiversity/Conservation, Ecology, Fish, Gene drive mechanisms, Gene drive syntheticThresher, REJ, Michael; Drake, D. Andrew, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 76:1186-1202. 2018.
For more than two decades the Great Lakes Fishery Commission has sought tactics to complement, and potentially replace, the use of barriers and lampricides to control Sea Lamprey in the Great Lakes, but thus far without success. This paper examines the potential of modern genetic ...
Gene drive systems: Do they have a place in agricultural weed management?
Tags: Agriculture, CRISPR, Gene drive, Gene drive syntheticNeve, P, Pest Management Science, 74:2672-2679. 2018.
There is a pressing need for novel control techniques in agricultural weed management. Direct genetic control of agricultural pests encompasses a range of techniques to introduce and spread novel, fitness-reducing genetic modifications through pest populations. Recently, the ...
Identifying and detecting potentially adverse ecological outcomes associated with the release of gene-drive modified organisms
Tags: Agriculture, CRISPR, Ecology, Field trials, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Malaria, Mosquitoes, Risk and safety, Risk assessment, Stakeholder engagement, Transmission distortionHayes, KRH, G. R.; Dana, G. V.; Foster, S. D.; Ford, J. H.; Thresher, R.; Ickowicz, A.; Peel, D.; Tizard, M.; De Barro, P.; Strive, T.; Dambacher, J. M., Journal of Responsible Innovation, 5:S139-S158. 2018.
Synthetic gene drives could provide new solutions to a range of old problems such as controlling vector-borne diseases, agricultural pests and invasive species. In this paper, we outline methods to identify hazards and detect potentially adverse ecological outcomes at the ...
Evolutionary genetics of cytoplasmic incompatibility genes cifA and cifB in prophage WO of Wolbachia
Tags: Cytoplasmic incompatibility, Gene drive mechanisms, Toxin-antidote, WolbachiaLindsey, A. R. I., D. W. Rice, S. R. Bordenstein, A. W. Brooks, S. R. Bordenstein and I. L. G. Newton, Genome Biology and Evolution, 10:434-451. 2018.
The bacterial endosymbiont Wolbachia manipulates arthropod reproduction to facilitate its maternal spread through host populations. The most common manipulation is cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI): Wolbachia-infected males produce modified sperm that cause embryonic mortality, ...
Genetic villains: Killer meiotic drivers
Tags: Gene drive mechanisms, Genetic engineering, Selfish genetic elements, Toxin-antidote, Transmission distortionBravo Núñez, MAN, Nicole L.; Zanders, Sarah E., Trends in Genetics, 34:424-433. 2018.
Unbiased allele transmission into progeny is a fundamental genetic concept canonized as Mendel’s Law of Segregation. Not all alleles, however, abide by the law. Killer meiotic drivers are ultra-selfish DNA sequences that are transmitted into more than half (sometimes all) of ...
Rapid comeback of males: evolution of male-killer suppression in a green lacewing population
Tags: Evolution, Fruit fly, Genetic engineering, Other arthropods, Other Symbionts, Selfish genetic elements, Sex distorter, Transmission distortion, WolbachiaHayashi, MN, M.; Kageyama, D., Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 285:6. 2018.
Evolutionary theory predicts that the spread of cytoplasmic sex ratio distorters leads to the evolution of host nuclear suppressors, although there are extremely few empirical observations of this phenomenon. Here, we demonstrate that a nuclear suppressor of a cytoplasmic male ...
Simulating the effects of clumped egg laying on mosquito population dynamics in relation to gene-drive interventions
Tags: Ecology, Gene drive syntheticMorris, ALF, N.; Ghani, A., American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 99:279-280. 2018.
Gene-drive based vector control methods are a rapidly developing tool in the fight against malaria. They utilise highly targeted insertions of genes to express specific traits, such as biases in offspring sex ratio or inhibited vector competence, which are preferentially ...
The roles of ethics in gene drive research and governance
Tags: Ethics, Gene drive syntheticThompson, PB, Journal of Responsible Innovation, 5:S159-S179. 2018.
Ethics research queries the norms and values that shape the goals and justification for gene drive projects, and that might lead to issue or opposition to such projects. A framework for organizing ethics research is offered. In addition to basic research ethics and risk ...
Identifying knowledge gaps for gene drive research to control invasive animal species: The next CRISPR step
Tags: CRISPR, Ecology, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Invasive species, Pest managementMoro, DB, Margaret; Kennedy, Malcolm; Campbell, Susan; Tizard, Mark, Global Ecology and Conservation, 13:e00363. 2018.
Invasive animals have been linked to the extinctions of native wildlife, and to significant agricultural financial losses or impacts. Current approaches to control invasive species require ongoing resources and management over large geographic scales, and often result in the ...
Origin, composition, and structure of the supernumerary B chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster
Tags: Chromosomal drive, Gene drive mechanisms, Other arthropodsHanlon, SLM, Danny E.; Eche, Salam; Hawley, R. Scott, Genetics, 210:1197. 2018.
The number of chromosomes carried by an individual species is one of its defining characteristics. Some species, however, can also carry supernumerary chromosomes referred to as B chromosomes. B chromosomes were recently identified in a laboratory stock of Drosophila ...
Public engagement and communication: who is in charge?
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Risk and safetyBoëte, C, EMBO reports, 19:1. 2018.
The discovery of CRISPR has led to the development of gene drive systems that could be used to spread desired traits in a target species or to exterminate a population within a few generations. It is no surprise then that such a controversial and disruptive technology has raised ...
Switchable genome editing via genetic code expansion
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Other mammals, Risk and safetySuzuki, TA, Maki; Patel, Sanjay G.; Luk, Louis Y. P.; Tsai, Yu-Hsuan; Perry, Anthony C. F., Scientific Reports, 8:10051. 2018.
Multiple applications of genome editing by CRISPR-Cas9 necessitate stringent regulation and Cas9 variants have accordingly been generated whose activity responds to small ligands, temperature or light. However, these approaches are often impracticable, for example in clinical ...
Economic issues to consider for gene drives
Tags: Agriculture, Biodiversity/Conservation, CRISPR, Ecology, Gene drive synthetic, Gene editing, Invasive species, MalariaMitchell, PDB, Z.; McRoberts, N., Journal of Responsible Innovation, 5:S180-S202. 2018.
We examine four economic issues regarding gene drive applications made possible by gene editing technologies. First, whether gene drives are self-sustaining or self-limiting will largely determine which types of organizations have incentives to develop and deploy gene drives and ...
Gene drive inhibition by the anti-CRISPR proteins AcrIIA2 and AcrIIA4 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Tags: Agriculture, CRISPR, Gene drive, Gene drive synthetic, Yeast and FungiBasgall, EMG, S. C.; Goeckel, M. E.; Giersch, R. M.; Roggenkamp, E.; Schrock, M. N.; Halloran, M.; Finnigan, G. C., Microbiology-Sgm, 164:464-474. 2018.
Given the widespread use and application of the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas gene editing system across many fields, a major focus has been the development, engineering and discovery of molecular means to precisely control and regulate ...
Improved CRISPR-based suppression gene drives mitigate resistance and impose a large reproductive load on laboratory-contained mosquito populations
Tags: Evolution, Gene drive synthetic, Other arthropodsHammond, AMK, Kyros; Gribble, Matthew; Karlsson, Xenia; Morianou, Ioanna; Galizi, Roberto; Beaghton, Andrea; Crisanti, Andrea; Nolan, Tony, bioRxiv, 360339:1-16. 2018.
CRISPR-based genes drives bias their own inheritance and can be used to modify entire populations of insect vectors of disease as a novel form of sustainable disease control. Gene drives designed to interfere with female fertility can suppress populations of the mosquito vector ...
Kinetic basis for DNA target specificity of CRISPR-Cas12a
Tags: Gene drive syntheticStrohkendl, IS, Fatema A.; Rybarski, James R.; Finkelstein, Ilya J.; Russell, Rick, Molecular Cell, 71:816-824. 2018.
Summary Class 2 CRISPR-Cas nucleases are programmable genome editing tools with promising applications in human health and disease. However, DNA cleavage at off-target sites that resemble the target sequence is a pervasive problem that remains poorly understood mechanistically. ...
Anticipating complexity in the deployment of gene drive insects in agriculture
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Risk and safetyBaltzegar, JCB, Jessica; Elsensohn, Johanna E.; Gutzmann, Nicole; Jones, Michael S.; King, Sheron; Sudweeks, Jayce, Journal of Responsible Innovation, 5:S81-S97. 2018.
Insects cause substantial losses to agricultural crops each yearand require intensive management approaches. Genetic pestmanagement has emerged as a viable, non-chemical alternative formanaging insect pests. The development of engineered genedrives for agricultural use is ...
Genetics and genomics of an unusual selfish sex ratio distortion in an insect
Tags: Chromosomal drive, Evolution, Other arthropods, WolbachiaHamilton, PTH, C. N.; Curtis, C. I.; Perlman, S. J., Current Biology, 28:3864-3870. 2018.
Diverse selfish genetic elements have evolved the ability to manipulate reproduction to increase their transmission, and this can result in highly distorted sex ratios [1]. Indeed, one of the major explanations for why sex determination systems are so dynamic is because they are ...
Harnessing gene drive
Tags: Ethics, Gene drive synthetic, Governance, Policy, Regulation, Risk and safety, Stakeholder engagementMin, JS, Andrea L.; Najjar, Devora; Esvelt, Kevin M., Journal of Responsible Innovation, 5:S40-S65. 2018.
When scientists alter the genome of an organism, we typically reduce its ability to reproduce in the wild. This limitation has prevented researchers from rendering wild insects unable to spread disease, programing pests to ignore our crops, using genetics to precisely remove ...
Satellite DNAs unveil clues about the ancestry and composition of B chromosomes in three grasshopper species
Tags: Chromosomal drive, Other arthropodsMilani, DB, Vanessa; Ferretti, Ana; Palacios-Gimenez, Octavio; Melo, Adriana; Moura, Rita; Loreto, Vilma; Song, Hojun; Cabral-de-Mello, Diogo, Genes, 9:e523. 2018.
Supernumerary (B) chromosomes are dispensable genomic elements occurring frequently among grasshoppers. Most B chromosomes are enriched with repetitive DNAs, including satellite DNAs (satDNAs) that could be implicated in their evolution. Although studied in some species, the ...
Selfish genetic elements
Tags: Evolution, Fruit fly, Gene drive synthetic, Population genetics/dynamics, Replicator/site directed nuclease, Selfish genetic elements, Sex distorter, Transmission distortionAgren, JAC, A. G., PLOS Genetics, 14:20. 2018.
Selfish genetic elements (historically also referred to as selfish genes, ultra-selfish genes, selfish DNA, parasitic DNA, genomic outlaws) are genetic segments that can enhance their own transmission at the expense of other genes in the genome, even if this has no or a negative ...
Strengthening regulatory capacity for gene drives in Africa: leveraging NEPAD’s experience in establishing regulatory systems for medicines and GM crops in Africa
Tags: Ethics, Gene drive synthetic, Risk and safetyGlover, BA, Olalekan; Savadogo, Moussa; Timpo, Samuel; Lemgo, Godwin; Sinebo, Woldeyesus; Akile, Sunday; Obukosia, Silas; Ouedraogo, Jeremy; Ndomondo-Sigonda, Margareth; Koch, Muffy; Makinde, Diran; Ambali, Aggrey, BMC Proceedings, 12:1-10. 2018.
The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Agency recognizes that Africa is in a period of transition and that this demands exploring and harnessing safe advances made in science-based innovations including modern biotechnology. To advance the science of biotechnology ...
To reduce the global burden of human schistosomiasis, use ‘old fashioned’ snail control
Tags: Ecology, Gene drive synthetic, Other invertebratesSokolow, SHW, Chelsea L.; Jones, Isabel J.; Lafferty, Kevin D.; Kuris, Armand; Hsieh, Michael H.; De Leo, Giulio A., Trends in Parasitology, 34:23-40. 2018.
Control strategies to reduce human schistosomiasis have evolved from ‘snail picking’ campaigns, a century ago, to modern wide-scale human treatment campaigns, or preventive chemotherapy. Unfortunately, despite the rise in preventive chemotherapy campaigns, just as many people ...
Gene flow mediates the role of sex chromosome meiotic drive during complex speciation
Tags: Fruit fly, Other arthropods, Transmission distortionMeiklejohn, CDL, Emily L.; Gordon, Kathleen E.; Rzatkiewicz, Thomas; Kingan, Sarah B.; Geneva, Anthony J.; Vedanayagam, Jeffrey P.; Muirhead, Christina A.; Garrigan, Daniel; Stern, David L.; Presgraves, Daven C., eLife, 7:e35468. 2018.
During speciation, sex chromosomes often accumulate interspecific genetic incompatibilities faster than the rest of the genome. The drive theory posits that sex chromosomes are susceptible to recurrent bouts of meiotic drive and suppression, causing the evolutionary build-up of ...
Population dynamics of engineered underdominance and killer-rescue gene drives in the control of disease vectors
Tags: Ecology, Evolution, Gene drive synthetic, Toxin-antidote, UnderdominanceEdgington, MPA, Luke S., PLOS Computational Biology, 14:e1006059. 2018.
Vector-borne diseases represent a severe burden to both human and animal health worldwide. The methods currently being used to control a range of these diseases do not appear sufficient to address the issues at hand. As such, alternate methods for the control of vector-borne ...
Synthetic gene drive: between continuity and novelty: Crucial differences between gene drive and genetically modified organisms require an adapted risk assessment for their use
Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Risk and safetySimon, SO, Mathias; Engelhard, Margret, EMBO Reports, 19:e45760. 2018.
Gene drive organisms differ from “classical” genetically modified organisms in several crucial aspects. It would require new approaches for risk assessment to gauge their potential impact on the environment. While some argue that current risk assessment frameworks can ...
A CRISPR–Cas9-based gene drive platform for genetic interaction analysis in Candida albicans
Tags: Agriculture, Gene drive syntheticShapiro, RSC, Alejandro; Porter, Caroline B. M.; Hamblin, Meagan; Kaas, Christian S.; DiCarlo, James E.; Zeng, Guisheng; Xu, Xiaoli; Revtovich, Alexey V.; Kirienko, Natalia V.; Wang, Yue; Church, George M.; Collins, James J., Nature Microbiology, 3:73-82. 2018.
Candida albicans is the leading cause of fungal infections; yet, complex genetic interaction analysis remains cumbersome in this diploid pathogen. Here, we developed a CRISPR–Cas9-based ‘gene drive array’ platform to facilitate efficient genetic analysis in C. albicans. In ...
