Keywords: islands

Faut-il miser sur le forçage génétique contre les espèces invasives?

P. Minet,  Le Temps,  2021.
Un «gene drive» peut servir à annihiler complètement et rapidement une population d’animaux indésirables. Prometteuse pour lutter contre les espèces invasives, cette technologie a fait l’objet d’âpres débats dans le cadre du congrès mondial de la nature à ...
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Invasive Mice and Engineered Genes

W. M. Adams and K. H. Redford,  Yale University Press Blog,  2021.
On Gough Island, a steep speck of land deep in the South Atlantic, giant mice eat albatross chicks as they sit on their nests. They are house mice, accidental arrivals on the ships of long-dead sealers. But they have lost their secretive, timid, mousy ways. Over numerous ...
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The origin of island populations of the African malaria mosquito, Anopheles coluzzii

M. Campos, M. Hanemaaijer, H. Gripkey, T. C. Collier, Y. S. Lee, A. J. Cornel, J. Pinto, D. Ayala, H. Rompao and G. C. Lanzaro,  Communications Biology,  4:9. 2021.
Anopheles coluzzii is a major malaria vector throughout its distribution in west-central Africa. Here we present a whole-genome study of 142 specimens from nine countries in continental Africa and three islands in the Gulf of Guinea. This sample set covers a large part of this ...
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Islands as Laboratories: Indigenous Knowledge and Gene Drives in the Pacific

R. I. Taitingfong,  Human Biology,  91:179-188. 2020.
This article argues that the genetic engineering technology known as gene drive must be evaluated in the context of the historic and ongoing impacts of settler colonialism and military experimentation on indigenous lands and peoples. After defining gene drive and previewing some ...
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Gene Drive and Thinking Animals

Island Conservation,  ,  2019.
Royden Saah, Island Conservation's GBIRd program manager, recently spoke at the Thinking Animals Summit alongside Leilani Münter, a former professional race car driver and environmental activist. The Genetic Biocontrol of Invasive Rodents partnership (GBIRd) is designed for ...
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Sustainability as a framework for considering gene drive mice for invasive rodent eradication

Barnhill-Dilling, SKS, M.; Blondel, D. V.; Godwin, J.,  Sustainability,  11:1334. 2019.
Gene drives represent a dynamic and controversial set of technologies with applications that range from mosquito control to the conservation of biological diversity on islands. Currently, gene drives are being developed in mice that may one day serve as an important tool for ...
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Identifying knowledge gaps for gene drive research to control invasive animal species: The next CRISPR step

Moro, 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 ...
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Is it time for synthetic biodiversity conservation?

Piaggio, AJS, G.; Seddon, P. J.; Alphey, L.; Bennett, E. L.; Carlson, R. H.; Friedman, R. M.; Kanavy, D.; Phelan, R.; Redford, K. H.; Rosales, M.; Slobodian, L.; Wheeler, K.,  Trends in Ecology & Evolution,  32:97-107. 2017.
Evidence indicates that, despite some critical successes, current conservation approaches are not slowing the overall rate of biodiversity loss. The field of synthetic biology, which is capable of altering natural genomes with extremely precise editing, might offer the potential ...
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The Trojan Female Technique for pest control: a candidate mitochondrial mutation confers low male fertility across diverse nuclear backgrounds in Drosophila melanogaster

D. K. Dowling, D. M. Tompkins and N. J. Gemmell,  Evolutionary Applications,  8:8710880. 2015.
The Trojan Female Technique (TFT) was recently proposed as a prospective approach to biological pest control. However, applicability of the TFT relies on mitochondrial mutations whose male-sterilizing effects are general across nuclear genomic contexts. We test this assumption, ...
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