Keywords: History

Probing “Selfish” Centromeres Unveils an Evolutionary Arms Race

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M. Lampson,  The Scientist,  2023.
The so-called Robertsonian (Rb) fusions that led to these rapid karyotype changes are relatively common chromosomal rearrangements. But their accumulation in the populations of Madeira Island and in multiple other isolated mouse populations elsewhere is likely due to another ...

Driving lessons: a brief (personal) history of centromere drive

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H. 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 ...

Mendel’s laws of heredity on his 200th birthday: What have we learned by considering exceptions?

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J. B. Wolf, A. C. Ferguson-Smith and A. Lorenz,  Heredity,  129:1-3. 2022.
Violations of Mendel’s laws can generically be referred to as ‘non-Mendelian inheritance’. However, from that broad perspective, nearly all inheritance systems would show non-Mendelian inheritance (at least to some degree). To hold exactly, Mendel’s laws impose strict ...

The fight against malaria

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F. Ammache,  Year 2049,  2022.
Malaria is a disease we’ve been dealing with for thousands of years. Traces of the malaria parasite have been found in the remains of Egyptian mummies. Hippocrates described the fevers caused by malaria in Ancient Greece. The mosquito-filled Pontine Marshes protected Ancient ...

New weapons to fight malaria transmission: A historical view

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W. Huang, S.-J. Cha and M. Jacobs-Lorena,  Entomological Research,  2022.
The stagnation of our fight against malaria in recent years, mainly due to the development of mosquito insecticide resistance, argues for the urgent development of new weapons. The dramatic evolution of molecular tools in the last few decades led to a better understanding of ...

Genetic Control in Historical Perspective: The Legacy of India’s Genetic Control of Mosquitoes Unit

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R. Wilbanks,  Hastings Center Report,  51:S11-S18. 2021.
Abstract In the early 1970s, a World Health Organization-initiated and United States-funded project released lab-reared mosquitoes outside New Delhi in the first large-scale field trials of the genetic control of mosquitoes. Despite partnering with the Indian Council of Medical ...

New mosquito control tools are critical

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L. Braack,  Open Access Government,  2021.
Globally, we are making slow headway in the fight against malaria, but there has been progress, nonetheless. Since 2000, 39 countries and territories have managed to rid themselves of malaria; the most recent is China. Existing tools can achieve local elimination, but the battle ...

Oxitec and MosquitoMate in the United States: lessons for the future of gene drive mosquito control

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C. E. Schairer, J. Najera, A. A. James, O. S. Akbari and C. S. Bloss,  Pathogens and Global Health,  2021.
ABSTRACTIn response to growing concerns regarding mosquito-borne diseases, scientists are developing novel systems of vector control. Early examples include Oxitec?s OX513A genetically-engineered mosquito and MosquitoMate?s Wolbachia-infected mosquito, and systems using ...

His Passion Was Contagious

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D. C. McCool,  Notre Dame Magazine,  2021.
Craig was an entomologist and vector biologist whose interest in mosquitoes and the diseases they transmit to people was as contagious as the pathogens themselves. Hesburgh could not have chosen a more driven faculty member. In his 38 years at Notre Dame, before he died in 1995 ...

Teach Me in 10 – Gene Drive Research with Dr. Jennifer Baltzegar

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J. Baltzegar,  Technology Networks,  2020.
Dr Baltzegar teaches us about how the maturation of genetic engineering approaches has advanced gene drives, the two different strategies for gene drives and some of the key questions surrounding the application of gene drives in society.

America’s Never-Ending Battle Against Flesh-Eating Worms

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S. Zhang,  The Atlantic,  2020.
The United States Department of Agriculture undertook what would ultimately become an immense, multidecade effort to wipe out the screwworms, first in the U.S. and then in Mexico and Central America—all the way down to the narrow strip of land that is the Isthmus of Panama. The ...

Gene Drives: A scientific case for a complete and perpetual ban

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Latham, J,  GeneWatch,  2017.
One of the central issues of our day is how to safely manage the outputs of industrial innovation. Novel products incorporating nanotechnology, biotechnology, rare metals, microwaves, novel chemicals, and more, enter the market on a daily basis. Yet none of these products come ...

Sterile Insect Techniques, GE mosquitoes and gene drives

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Hanson, J,  GeneWatch,  2017.
One of the great temptations in any field is to promote your solution to a problem as the only solution. The recent application of gene drives to sterilize mosquitoes that transmit malaria or viruses like dengue and zika is an example of this tendency to first develop a ...

Gene drive and collective oversight

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Esvelt, K,  GeneWatch,  2017.
As one of the scientists who first described how CRISPR could create gene drive systems capable of altering wild; populations, I am morally responsible for the consequences. I'm writing to you in the hope that the people most; critical of the very idea can help. Bluntly, gene ...

Concept and history of genetic control

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Scott, M. J. and Benedict, M. Q.,  Genetic Control of Malaria and Dengue,  2:31-54. 2016.
Genetic control of insects is an established method, mainly for insects that are important crop and veterinary pests such as medflies and screwworm. Efforts to use the same technologies against insects of medical importance, especially mosquitoes, have had limited success. The ...

Marcus Rhoades on preferential segregation in maize

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Birchler, JA,  Genetics,  203:1489-1490. 2016.
Rhoades was studying a variant form of chromosome 10 with a conspicuous abnormality; it carried extensive heterochromatin at the tip of the long arm. This variant had been found by Albert Longley in indigenous maize varieties from the southwestern United States and provided to ...

Selfish genetic elements and the gene’s-eye view of evolution

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Ågren, JA,  Current Zoology,  62:659-665. 2016.
During the last few decades, we have seen an explosion in the influx of details about the biology of selfish genetic elements. Ever since the early days of the field, the gene’s-eye view of Richard Dawkins, George Williams, and others, has been instrumental to make sense of new ...

History of the Sterile Insect Technique

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Klassen, W. and C. F. Curtis,  Sterile Insect Technique: Principles and Practice in Area-Wide Integrated Pest Managemen,  2005:3-36.. 2005.
During the 1930s and 1940s the idea of releasing insects of pest species to introduce sterility (sterile insect technique or SIT) into wild populations, and thus control them, was independently conceived in three extremely diverse intellectual environments. The key researchers ...

Marcus Rhoades, preferential segregation and meiotic drive

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Birchler, JAD, R. K.; Doebley, J. F.,  Genetics,  164:835-841. 2003.
LONG before microarray biologists coined and promoted the term “discovery science,” maize geneticists were avid practitioners of this mode of investigation. In fact, one might say that for a number of years, the field of maize genetics basically operated as discovery science. ...

Recurrent invasion and extinction of a selfish gene

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Goddard, MRB, A.,  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,  96:13880-13885. 1999.
Homing endonuclease genes show super-Mendelian inheritance, which allows them to spread in populations even when they are of no benefit to the host organism. To test the idea that regular horizontal transmission is necessary for the long-term persistence of these genes, we ...

Sander,Larry – The father of meiotic drive

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Lindsley, DL,  American Naturalist,  137:283-286. 1991.
The symposium at which the following papers were presented was deprived of what surely would have been a major intellectual contribution by the sudden death of its co-organizer, Larry Sandler, in February 1987. Larry was a leading contributor to the study of segregation ...

Genetics-driving genes and chromosomes

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Charlesworth, B,  Nature,  332:394-395. 1988.
Thereare several genetic and chromosomal systems in which Mendel's first law - the equal probability of transmission of maternal and paternal alternative alleles or homologues - is violated. This phenomenon was named 'meiotic drive' in 1957 by Sandler and Novitski, who drew ...

Population replacement in Culex fatigens by means of cytoplasmic incompatibility. Laboratory experiments with non-overlapping generations

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C. F. Curtis and T. Adak,  Bulletin of the World Health Organization,  51:249-255. 1974.
Bidirectional cytoplasmic incompatibility in the Culex pipiens complex appears to provide a mechanism for the replacement of a wild population by a strain refractory to filaria or a strain made partly sterile by a translocation. As a preliminary test of the feasibility of the ...

Genetic control of insect populations: I. Cage studies of chromosome replacement by compound autosomes in Drosophila melanogaste

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M. Fitz-Earle, D. G. Holm and D. T. Suzuki,  Genetics,  74:461-475. 1973.
A genetic method for insect control was evaluated using the test organism, Drosophila melanogaster. The technique involved the displacement under a system of continuous reproduction, of standard strains by those carrying compound autosomes. The eradication of the replacements ...

Changing population structure through the use of compound chromosomes

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D. Childress,  Genetics,  72:183-186. 1972.
Theoretical calculations and population cage data are presented to illustrate the use of compound chromosomes to change the genetic structure of insect populations.

Chromosome rearrangements for the control of insect pests

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G. G. Foster, M. J. Whitten, T. Prout and R. Gill,  Science,  176:875-880. 1972.
Over several years some biologists have been interested in the possibilities of employing genetic techniques in the control of insect pests. One idea has been to introduce in the natural population genotypes which could subsequently facilitate control, or which might render the ...

Possible use of translocations to fix desirable genes in insect populations.

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Curtis, CF,  Nature,  218:368-369. 1968.
Chromosome translocation heterozygotes (T/+) are usually semisterile, but translocation homozygotes (T/T) if viable are usually fully fertile. If such a viable translocation were produced in an insect pest, T/T insects could be reared in captivity and released into the wild, ...

Eradication of Culex pipiens fatigans through cytoplasmic incompatibility.

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H. Laven,  Nature,  216:383. 1967.
Culex pipiens fatigans is the chief vector of filariasis in south-east Asia. Urbanization has often caused the numbers of this mosquito-and with it the danger of filariasis infection-to increase alarmingly. The natural vigour, tolerance and fast development of resistance to ...

Applications of genetic technology to mosquito rearing

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G. B. Craig,  Bulletin of the World Health Organization,  29:89-97. 1963.
Since the development of insecticide-resistance and the consequent partial failure of the chemical approach to the control of disease vectors, interest in the biological approach has re-awakened. An aspect of the latter approach that is of great current interest is " autocidal ...

On the role of lethal mutants in the control of populations

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R. C. Von Borstel and A. A. Buzzati-Traverso,  Radioisotopes and Radiation in Entomology: Proceedings of a Symposium, Bombay, 5-9 December, 1960,  1962:273-278. 1962.
On the role of lethal. mutants in the control of populations. Population control by release of irradiated males requires that the sperm must be damaged by radiation. The type of damage induced by radiation imposes a restriction on which species may be controlled because if the ...

Inherited male-producing factor in Aedes aegypti

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G. B. Craig, W. A. Hickey and R. C. Vandehey,  Science,  132:1887-1889. 1960.
An inherited factor causes a predominance of males in certain strains and in progeny of single pairs of Aedes aegypti L. This factor appears to be transmitted only by males and is not due to differential mortality, at least in postgametic stages. Mass release of male-producing ...

Meiotic drive in natural-populations of Drosophila melanogaster 3: Populational implications of the Segregation-Distorter locus

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Hiraizumi, YS, L.; Crow, J. E.,  Evolution,  14:433-444. 1960.
If, among the successful gametes frm heterozygotes, one allele is regularly included in more than half, it may increase in frequency even if it has a harmful effect. Unequal gamete production, when attributable to the mechanics of meiosis, has been called meiotic drive (Sandler ...

Meiotic drive in natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster .1. The cytogenetic basis of segregation distortion

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Sandler, LH, Y.; Sandler, I.,  Genetics,  44:233-250. 1959.
Meiotic drive has been defined as a force, potentially capable of altering gene frequencies in natural populations, which somehow depends upon the nature of the meiotic divisions; specifically, when the meiotic divisions are such that the two kinds of gametes from a heterozygote ...

Possible replacement of malaria mosquitoes

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S. Avery Jones,  Transactions of The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene,  51:469-470. 1957.
Sir,--The purpose of this letter is to draw the attention of research workers in control of mosquito colonies to the possible value of investigating the factors governing the infection of mosquitoes with parasites of human malaria. If a strain of a vector species could be ...

Meiotic drive as an evolutionary force

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Sandler, L. and Novitski, E.,  American Naturalist,  91:105-110. 1957.
A heterozygote for alleles A and A' ordinarilly produces gametes carrying each of the alleles with a frequency of 50 per cent. The constancy of allele frequencies from one generation to the nest in natural populations of diploid species depends on this equality, which itself ...

Inheritance in Nicotiana tabacum XXVII. Pollen Killer, An alien genetic locus inducing abortion of microspores not carrying it

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D. R. Cameron and R. M. Moav,  Genetics,  42:326. 1957.
A cytogenetic study of experimental introgression from N. plumbaginifolia (pbg) into N. tabacum (tbc) has been pursued in this laboratory for several years (CLAUSEN 1952). In the hybrid derivatives it was observed that genically controlled pollen abortion was associated with the ...

Studies of the genetic variability in populations of wild house mice .2. Analysis of eight additional alleles at locus – T

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L. C. Dunn,  Genetics,  42:299-311. 1957.
1 Eight additional lethal alleles at locus T are described, each derived from a wild heterozygote in one of six different wild populations. 2. The frequency of heterozygotes appears to be high in most wild populations, possibly as high as 50 percent. 3. In two of the ...

Screw-worm control through release of sterilized flies

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A. H. Baumhover, A. J. Graham, B. A. Bitter, D. E. Hopkins, W. D. New, F. H. Dudley and R. C. Bushland,  Journal of Economic Entomology,  48:462-466. 1955.
Screw-worms, Callitroga hominivorax (Cqrl.), did not exist in the southeastern United States until about 20 years ago, and it is probable that, if the present infestation could be eradicated, the area might be kept free of infestation through inspection of livestock shipments ...

Possibilities of Insect Control or Eradication Through the Use of Sexually Sterile Males

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E. F. Knipling,  Journal of Economic Entomology,  48:459-462. 1955.
The purpose of this paper is to consider the possibility of controlling insects by releasing sexually sterile males among the existing natural population. The principles involved will be described and the potentialities as well as the limitations of the method as we know them at ...

Eradication of screw-worms through release of sterilized males

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R. C. Bushland, A. W. Lindquist and E. F. Knipling,  Science,  122:287-288. 1955.
Although the sterilizing effect of ionizing radiations has been known for years, it is only recently that entomologists have attempted to take advantage of the phenomenon for insect control. Knipling (1) has theorized on the effects of releasing sterilized males among a normal ...

Mutable loci in maize.

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B. McClintock,  Carnegie Inst. Washington Year Book,  47:155-169. 1948.
Previous reports have state that the number of unstable loci have recently arisen in maize culture. In a particular cell of a plant, a normal "wild-type" locus becomes altered; the normal, dominant expression of this locus changes and gives rise to a recessive expression (or, in ...

Experiments in the hybridisation of tsetse-flies (Glossina, Diptera) and the possibility of a new method of control.

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F. L. Vanderplank,  Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London,  98:1-18. 1947.
Hybridisation of Glossina morsitans Westwood, G. swynnertoni Austen and G. pallidipes Austen was attempted in order to discover(a) Whether the three could be regarded as distinct species or as sub-species of morsitans ; (b) Whether they would mate freely with one another, and if ...

Parasitic nature of extra fragment chromosomes

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Östergren G.,  Botaniska Notiser,  2:157-163. 1945.
This paper is intended as a contribution to the discussion con­cerning the significance of the extra fragments or »accessory chromo­somes» as they are called by Håk ansso n(1945), which are not too rarely found in cross-fertilizing populations. I think reasonable support may ...

Tsetse hybrids

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W. H. Potts,  Nature,  154:606-607. 1944.
IN 1936 I attempted to cross various species of tsetse (Glossina) with the idea that, should they hybridize readily, and should the resultant hybrids prove sterile, this might be tried as a measure of control. Corson had already, in 1932, obtained three offspring from crosses ...

Hybridization between Glossina Species and Suggested New Method for Control of Certain Species of Tsetse

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F. L. Vanderplank,  Nature,  154:607-608. 1944.
Corson and Potts record crossing Glossina swynnertoni Aust. with G. morsitans Westwood. Corson crossed twelve female G. morsitans with male G. swynnertoni, of which only two females produced a total of three pupæ. All his females lived long enough for reproduction to take place. ...

Preferential segregation in maize

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M. M. Rhoades,  Genetics,  27:395-407. 1942.
An abnormal type of chromosome 10, found by Longley in maize from the s.-w. part of the U. S., is preferentially segregated during megasporogenesis. More than 70% of the ovules receive the abnormal chromosome instead of the 50% expected with random segregation. At pachytene the ...

On the possibility of a new method for the control of insect pests.

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A. S. Serebrovskii,  Zoologicheskiĭ zhurnal,  19:618-630 (in Russian). 1940.
ON THE POSSIBILITY OF A NEW METHOD FOR THE CONTROL OF INSECT PESTS. The new principle of insect control consists in disturbing the propagation of the pest population by means of translocations. It is well known that individuals heterozygous for some translocations usually form a ...

A new sex-ratio abnormality in Drosophila obscura

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S. Gershenson,  Genetics,  13:488. 1928.
1. The sex-ratio in the normal lines of Drosophila obscura is very near to the theoretical 1 : 1. 2. Out of 19 females caught in nature, two were heterozygous for a gene which causes strong deviations in the normal sex distribution. 3. The researches made have shown that this ...

Sur la reproduction des souris anoures

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N. Dobrovolskaia-Zavadskaia and N. Kobozieff,  Comptes rendus des séances de la Société de biologie et de ses filiales,  97:116-119. 1927.
Nous ne connaissons que deux lignees de Souris sans queue, celle de Lang (1913), et cell de Duboscq (1922). L’elevange de Lang (lignee des Souris brachyures et anoures du preparateur Alfred Nageli) a donne 199 Souris normales, pour 173 brachyures et 9 anoures. Croisses entre ...