Keywords: Other arthropods

To CRISPR or Not to CRISPR? Ethical Considerations in Gene-Editing Insects

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Brendan Parent, Meghan Barrett,  American Entomologist,  70:54-57. 2024.
Genetically modified corn has helped feed the world (Hernandes-Lopes et al. 2023). Genetically modified mosquitoes could help eliminate devastating diseases like malaria (Hammond and Galizi 2017). Plainly, gene editing can serve some important human interests. Still, many people ...

What if GM mosquitoes could help limit the tiger mosquito population?

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Anonymous,  All News Press,  2024.
What if the fight against the tiger mosquito, this invasive species originating from Southeast Asia and established in France for about twenty years, was not totally lost in advance? The exploratory project of Éric Marois, research officer Inserm, within the Institute of ...

Wolbachia symbionts control sex in a parasitoid wasp using a horizontally acquired gene

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Li C, Li CQ, Chen ZB, Liu BQ, Sun X, Wei KH, Li CY, Luan JB.,  Current Biology,  2024.
Host reproduction can be manipulated by bacterial symbionts in various ways. Parthenogenesis induction is the most effective type of reproduction manipulation by symbionts for their transmission. Insect sex is determined by regulation of doublesex (dsx) splicing through ...

A homing rescue gene drive with multiplexed gRNAs reaches high frequency in cage populations but generates functional resistance

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Jingheng Chen, Shibo Hou, Ruobing Feng, Xuejiao Xu, Nan Liang, Jackson Champer,  bioRxiv,  2023.
CRISPR homing gene drive is a potent technology with considerable potential for managing populations of medically and agriculturally significant insects. It induces a bias in the inheritance of the drive allele in progeny, rapidly spreading desired genes throughout the ...

How to fight insects that transmit diseases to people without harming those who cannot?

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Nation World News Desk,  Nation World,  2023.
One way to avoid this severe environmental impact is to specifically control the population of species that cause problems. This can be done chemically by releasing hormones into the environment that prevent passage to the adult stage, or pheromones that make them believe that a ...

X-rays are as effective as gamma-rays for the sterilization of Glossina palpalis gambiensis Vanderplank, 1911 (Diptera: Glossinidae) for use in the sterile insect technique

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B. A. Kaboré, A. Nawaj, H. Maiga, O. Soukia, S. Pagabeleguem, M. S. G. Ouédraogo/Sanon, M. J. B. Vreysen, R. L. Mach and C. J. de Beer,  Scientific Reports,  13:17633. 2023.
An area-wide integrated pest management strategy with a sterile insect technique (SIT) component requires a radiation source for the sterilisation of male insects. Self-contained gamma irradiators, which were exclusively used in past SIT programmes, are now facing increasing ...

Development and characterization of microsatellite markers for the tsetse species Glossina brevipalpis and preliminary population genetics analyses

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F. Gstöttenmayer, P. Moyaba, M. Rodriguez, F. C. Mulandane, H. N. Mucache, L. Neves, C. De Beer, S. Ravel, T. De Meeûs, R. L. Mach, M. J. B. Vreysen and A. M. M. Abd-Alla,  Parasite,  30:34. 2023.
Tsetse flies, the vectors of African trypanosomes are of key medical and economic importance and one of the constraints for the development of Africa. Tsetse fly control is one of the most effective and sustainable strategies used for controlling the disease. Knowledge about ...

Influence of environmental conditions on mass rearing parameters of tsetse flies at the Bobo-Dioulasso insectary (Burkina Faso): retrospective study

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K. S. M. Dera, B. A. Kaboré, S. Pagabeleguem, A. A. Ouedraogo, A. I. Toé, M. Ira, A. M. G. Belem and G. M. S. O. Sanou,  International Journal of Biological and Chemical Sciences,  17:1020-1032. 2023.
With the goal of eradicating tsetse flies and trypanosomiasis in Africa, several control methods have been developed. One of this is the biological control through the application of the sterile insect technique (SIT) as a part of an area-wide integrated pest management. This ...

Meiotic drive does not impede success in sperm competition in the stalk-eyed fly, Teleopsis dalmanni

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S. Bates, L. Meade and A. Pomiankowski,  Evolution,  2023.
Male X-linked meiotic drive systems, which cause the degeneration of Y-bearing sperm, are common in the Diptera. Sperm killing is typically associated with fitness costs that arise from the destruction of wildtype sperm and collateral damage to maturing drive sperm, resulting in ...

Gene drives for invasive wasp control: Extinction is unlikely, with suppression dependent on dispersal and growth rates

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P. J. Lester, D. O'Sullivan and G. L. W. Perry,  Ecological Applications,  2023.
Abstract Gene drives offer a potentially revolutionary method for pest control over large spatial extents. These genetic modifications spread deleterious variants through a population and have been proposed as methods for pest suppression or even eradication. We examined the ...

Ability of a selfish B chromosome to evade genome elimination in the jewel wasp, Nasonia vitripennis

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H. Lee, P. Seo, S. Teklay, E. Yuguchi, E. D. Benetta, J. H. Werren and P. M. Ferree,  Heredity,  2023.
B chromosomes are non-essential, extra chromosomes that can exhibit transmission-enhancing behaviors, including meiotic drive, mitotic drive, and induction of genome elimination, in plants and animals. A fundamental but poorly understood question is what characteristics allow B ...

X chromosome drive is constrained by sexual selection and influences ornament evolution

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K. A. Paczolt, G. T. Welsh and G. S. Wilkinson,  Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences,  290:20230929. 2023.
Experimental evolution provides an integrative method for revealing complex interactions among evolutionary processes. One such interaction involves sex-linked selfish genetic elements and sexual selection. X-linked segregation distorters, a type of selfish genetic element, ...

Impacts of sex ratio meiotic drive on genome structure and function in a stalk-eyed fly

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J. A. Reinhardt, R. H. Baker, A. V. Zimin, C. Ladias, K. A. Paczolt, J. H. Werren, C. Y. Hayashi and G. S. Wilkinson,  Genome Biology Evolution,  2023.
Stalk-eyed flies in the genus Teleopsis carry selfish genetic elements that induce sex ratio meiotic drive (SR) and impact the fitness of male and female carriers. Here, we assemble and describe a chromosome-level genome assembly of the stalk-eyed fly, Teleopsis dalmanni, to ...

Oxitec Launches New Technology Program to Develop a Friendly™ Solution for the World’s Most Damaging Cattle Tick

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Oxitec Ltd,  Oxitec Press Release,  2023.
Oxitec Ltd, the leading developer of insect-based biological solutions to control pests that transmit disease, destroy crops and harm livestock, today announced the launch of development of a targeted, biological Friendly™ solution for the world’s most devastating cattle ...

Near-infrared imaging for automated tsetse pupae sex sorting in support of the sterile insect technique

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R. Argilés-Herrero, G. Salvador-Herranz, A. G. Parker, M. Zacarés, A. G. Fall, A. M. Gaye, A. Nawaz, P. Takáč, M. J. B. Vreysen and C. J. de Beer,  Parasite,  30. 2023.
Tsetse flies are the cyclical vectors of African trypanosomes and one of several methods to manage this vector is the sterile insect technique (SIT). The ability to determine the sex of tsetse pupae with the objective to separate the sexes before adult emergence has been a major ...

Evaluating the Effect of Irradiation on the Densities of Two RNA Viruses in Glossina morsitans morsitans

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C. K. Mirieri, A. M. M. Abd-Alla, V. I. D. Ros and M. M. van Oers,  Insects,  14. 2023.
Tsetse flies are cyclic vectors of Trypanosoma parasites, which cause debilitating diseases in humans and animals. To decrease the disease burden, the number of flies is reduced using the sterile insect technique (SIT), where male flies are sterilized through irradiation and ...

Gamma-radiation of Glossina palpalis gambiensis revisited: effect on fertility and mating competitiveness

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S. Pagabeleguem, O. Koughuindida, E. W. Salou, G. Gimonneau, A. I. Toé, B. A. Kaboré, K. S. M. Dera, H. Maïga, A. M. G. Belem, G. M. S. Sanou/Ouédraogo, M. J. Vreysen and J. Bouyer,  Parasite,  30:8. 2023.
African animal trypanosomoses are vector-borne diseases that cause enormous livestock losses in sub-Saharan Africa, with drastic socio-economic impacts. Vector control in the context of an area-wide integrated pest management program with a sterile insect technique component ...

Vector competence of sterile male Glossina fuscipes fuscipes for Trypanosoma brucei brucei: implications for the implementation of the sterile insect technique in a sleeping sickness focus in Chad

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M. H. Mahamat, A. Ségard, J.-B. Rayaisse, R. Argiles-Herrero, A. G. Parker, P. Solano, A. M. M. Abd-Alla, J. Bouyer and S. Ravel,  Parasites and Vectors,  16:111. 2023.
Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) is a neglected tropical disease caused by Trypanosoma brucei gambiense transmitted by tsetse flies in sub‑Saharan West Africa. In southern Chad the most active and persistent focus is the Mandoul focus, with 98% of the reported human cases, ...

Engineered symbiotic bacteria interfering Nosema redox system inhibit microsporidia parasitism in honeybees

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H. Lang, H. Wang, H. Wang, X. Xie, X. Hu, X. Zhang and H. Zheng,  bioRxiv,  2023.01.13.524015. 2023.
Nosema ceranae is an emergent microsporidia parasite of the European honey bee (Apis mellifera), which causes serious nosemosis implicated in honeybee colony losses worldwide. N. ceranae is an obligate intracellular eukaryotic parasite that mainly invades the midgut of honeybees. ...

Cell-based analysis reveals that sex-determining gene signals in Ostrinia are pivotally changed by male-killing Wolbachia

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B. 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 ...

Meiotic drive does not impede success in sperm competition in the stalk-eyed fly, Teleopsis dalmanni

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S. Bates, L. Meade and A. Pomiankowski,  bioRxiv,  2022.
Meiotic drive genes are selfish genetic elements that distort Mendelian patterns of inheritance to bias transmission in their favour. We use the stalk-eyed fly, Teleopsis dalmanni, to investigate the fitness effects associated with a meiotic drive gene called Sex Ratio (SR), ...

Genetic Tools for Integrated Management of Pests on Honeybees in the Tropics

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M. Pattabhiramaiah, S. Mallikarjunaiah and D. Brueckner,  Genetic Methods and Tools for Managing Crop Pests,  2022.
The Asian honeybee is endemic to Asia where it has been used for honey production and pollination services from time immemorial. They are integral to modern agricultural productivity and to survival and vitality of natural ecosystems. However, recent declines in populations and ...

Reflection on the Challenges, Accomplishments, and New Frontiers of Gene Drives

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M. Melesse Vergara, J. Labbé and J. Tannous,  BioDesign Research,  2022:9853416. 2022.
Ongoing pest and disease outbreaks pose a serious threat to human, crop, and animal lives, emphasizing the need for constantgenetic discoveries that could serve as mitigation strategies. Gene drives are genetic engineering approaches discovered decadesago that may allow quick, ...

Quality Control and Mating Performance of Irradiated Glossina palpalis gambiensis Males

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K. Ilboudo, K. Camara, E. W. Salou and G. Gimonnea,  Insects,  13. 2022.
The biological quality of sterile male insects produced in a mass-rearing facility is a prerequisite for the success of the SIT, which is a component of area-wide integrated pest management (AW-IPM). Indeed, sterile male insects released in the field must have a good mating ...

Wolbachia Impacts Anaplasma Infection in Ixodes scapularis Tick Cells

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K. 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 ...

First ever gene-edited ticks offer new weapons against Lyme disease

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N. Lavars,  New Atlas,  2022.
Gene editing in ticks had been thought to be impossible until now, and with good reason. Tick embryos are very tricky to inject because the egg that contains them has a tough layer on the outside, high pressure levels inside, and is also coated in a waxy layer the mothers create ...

A gene drive does not spread easily in populations of the honey bee parasite Varroa destructor

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N. R. Faber, A. B. Meiborg, G. R. McFarlane, G. Gorjanc and B. A. Harpur,  Apidologie,  2021.
Varroa mites (Varroa destructor) are the most significant threat to beekeeping worldwide. They are directly or indirectly responsible for millions of colony losses each year. Beekeepers are somewhat able to control varroa populations through the use of physical and chemical ...

Cas9-Mediated Gene-Editing in the Black-Legged Tick, Ixodes Scapularis, by Embryo Injection and ReMOT Control.

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A. a. P. Sharma, Michael N. and Reyes, Jeremiah B. and Chana, Randeep and Yim, Won C. and Heu, Chan C. and Kim, Donghun and Chaverra-Rodriguez, Duverney and Rasgon, Jason L. and Harrell, Robert A. and Nuss, Andrew B. and Gulia-Nuss, Monika,,  Cell Reports,  2021.
Despite their capacity to acquire and pass on an array of debilitating pathogens, research on ticks has lagged behind other arthropod vectors, such as mosquitoes, largely because of a lack of genetic and molecular tools. CRISPR-Cas9 is transforming non-model organism research; ...

Area-Wide Integrated Management of a Glossina palpalis gambiensis Population from the Niayes Area Of Senegal: A review of operational research in support of a phased conditional approach

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M. J. B. Vreysen, M. T. Seck, B. Sall, A. G. Mbaye, M. Bassene, A. G. Fall, M. Lo and J. Bouyer,  AREA-WIDE INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT:,  2021.
In 2005, the Government of Senegal initiated a project entitled "Projet de lutte contre les glossines dans les Niayes" (Tsetse control project in the Niayes) with the aim of creating a zone free of Glossina palpalis gambiensis in that area. The project received technical and ...

Genetic Manipulation of Ticks: A Paradigm Shift in Tick and Tick-Borne Diseases Research

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A. Nuss, A. Sharma and M. Gulia-Nuss,  Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology,  11:7. 2021.
Ticks are obligate hematophagous arthropods that are distributed worldwide and are one of the most important vectors of pathogens affecting humans and animals. Despite the growing burden of tick-borne diseases, research on ticks has lagged behind other arthropod vectors, such as ...

A gene drive does not spread easily in populations of the honey bee parasite Varroa destructor

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N. R. Faber, A. B. Meiborg, G. R. McFarlane, G. Gorjanc and B. A. Harpur,  bioRxiv,  2021.04.30.442149. 2021.
Varroa mites (Varroa destructor) are the most significant threat to beekeeping worldwide. They are directly or indirectly responsible for millions of colony losses each year. Beekeepers are somewhat able to control Varroa populations through the use of physical and chemical ...

Meiotic drive does not cause condition-dependent reduction of the sexual ornament in stalk-eyed flies

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S. R. Finnegan, M. Mondani, K. Fowler and A. Pomiankowski,  Journal of Evolutionary Biology,  11. 2021.
Meiotic drive systems are associated with low-frequency chromosomal inversions. These are expected to accumulate deleterious mutations due to reduced recombination and low effective population size. We test this prediction using the 'sex-ratio' (SR) meiotic drive system of the ...

Researchers help complete world first wasp genome project

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Staff,  The National Tribune,  2020.
In a world first, New Zealand researchers have sequenced the genome of three wasps, two of which are invasive wasps in New Zealand, paving the way for new methods of control for these significant pests.

Researchers complete world first wasp genome project

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University of Otago,  Phys Org,  2020.
In a world first, New Zealand researchers have sequenced the genome of three wasps, two of which are invasive wasps in New Zealand, paving the way for new methods of control for these significant pests.

Towards rangatiratanga in pest management? Maori perspectives and frameworks on novel biotechnologies in conservation

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S. Palmer, O. R. Mercier and A. King-Hunt,  Pacific Conservation Biology,  11. 2020.
We gathered Maori perspectives on novel biotechnological controls for pest wasps through three distinct studies. Study participants included tertiary students, businesses, and spiritual or religiously affiliated groups. All participants drew from their identities as Maori people ...

Biotechnologies in pest wasp control: taking the sting out of pest management for Māori businesses?

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S. Palmer and O. R. Mercier,  New Genetics and Society,  2020.
A Maori-centered mixed-method study gauged the perceptions of eight Maori businesses about the potential use of five specific new biotechnological controls in pest management.

The potential for a CRISPR gene drive to eradicate or suppress globally invasive social wasps

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P. J. Lester, M. Bulgarella, J. W. Baty, P. K. Dearden, J. Guhlin and J. M. Kean,  Scientific Reports,  10:12398. 2020.
P. J. Lester, M. Bulgarella, J. W. Baty, P. K. Dearden, J. Guhlin and J. M. Kean (2020). Scientific Reports. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-69259-6 Gene drives have potential for widespread and cost-efficient pest control, but are highly controversial. We examined a potential gene ...

How do you make a gene drive mosquito?

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GeneConvene Virtual Institute,  GeneConvene Global Collaborative,  2020.

A fly model establishes distinct mechanisms for synthetic CRISPR/Cas9 sex distorters

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B. Fasulo, A. Meccariello, M. Morgan, C. Borufka, P. A. Papathanos and N. Windbichler,  PLOS Genetics,  16:e1008647. 2020.
Author summary Harmful insect populations can be eliminated for a lack of females if they are made to produce mostly male offspring. There are genes that occur naturally that make males produce mostly sons and, although we don’t know exactly how they work, this appears to ...

Engineered symbionts activate honey bee immunity and limit pathogens

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P. Leonard Sean, J. E. Powell, J. Perutka, P. Geng, C. Heckmann Luke, D. Horak Richard, W. Davies Bryan, D. Ellington Andrew, E. Barrick Jeffrey and A. Moran Nancy,  Science,  367:573-576. 2020.
Honey bees are essential pollinators threatened by colony losses linked to the spread of parasites and pathogens. Here, we report a new approach for manipulating bee gene expression and protecting bee health. We engineered a symbiotic bee gut bacterium, Snodgrassella alvi, to ...

Senegal celebrates first victory against tsetse fly eradication

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FAO,  FAO,  2020.
A campaign against the tsetse fly, a pest that transmits a disease that devastates livestock, in the Niayes area near the capital Dakar started four years ago paving the way for complete eradication of this pest. “I have not seen a single tsetse fly for a year now,” said ...

Assessment of a Split Homing Based Gene Drive for Efficient Knockout of Multiple Genes

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N. P. Kandul, J. Liu, A. Buchman, V. M. Gantz, E. Bier and O. S. Akbari,  G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics,  10:827-837. 2019.
Homing based gene drives (HGD) possess the potential to spread linked cargo genes into natural populations and are poised to revolutionize population control of animals. Given that host encoded genes have been identified that are important for pathogen transmission, targeting ...

Fitness consequences of a non-recombining sex-ratio drive chromosome can explain its prevalence in the wild

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Dyer, K. A. and D. W. Hall,  Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences,  286:20192529. 2019.
Understanding the pleiotropic consequences of gene drive systems on host fitness is essential to predict their spread through a host population. Here, we study sex-ratio (SR) X-chromosome drive in the fly Drosophila recens, where SR causes the death of Y-bearing sperm in male ...

A cross-sectional survey of biosafety professionals regarding genetically modified insects

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O’Brochta, D. A., W. K. Tonui, B. Dass and S. James,  Applied Biosafety,  2019:1-9. 2019.
Background:Genetic technologies such as gene editing and gene drive create challenges for existing frameworks used to assess risk and make regulatory determinations by governments and institutions. Insect genetic technologies including transgenics, gene editing, and gene drive ...

The potential for a released autosomal X-shredder becoming a driving-Y chromosome and invasively suppressing wild populations of malaria mosquitoes

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Alcalay, Y., S. Fuchs, R. Galizi, F. Bernardini, R. E. Haghighat-Khah, D. B. Rusch, J. R. Adrion, M. W. Hahn, P. Tortosa and P. A. Papathanos,  bioRxiv,  2019:860551. 2019.
Synthetic sex-ratio distorters based on X-chromosome shredding are predicted to be more efficient than sterile males for population suppression of malaria mosquitoes using genetic control. X chromosome shredding operates through the targeted elimination of X-chromosome-bearing ...

Maintenance of fertility in the face of meiotic drive

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Meade, L., S. Finnegan, R. Kad, K. Fowler and A. Pomiankowsk,  The American Naturalist,  2019:2019. 2019.
Selfish genetic elements that gain a transmission advantage through the destruction of sperm have grave implications for drive male fertility. In the X-linked SR meiotic drive system of a stalk-eyed fly, we found that drive males have greatly enlarged testes and maintain high ...

An assessment of the immune costs associated with meiotic drive elements in Drosophila

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Lea, J. K. and R. L. Unckless,  Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences,  286:20191534. 2019.
Most organisms are constantly adapting to pathogens and parasites that exploit their host for their own benefit. Less studied, but perhaps more ubiquitous, are intragenomic parasites or selfish genetic elements. These include transposable elements, selfish B chromosomes and ...

Invasive insects: Management methods explored

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McLaughlin, G. M. and P. K. Dearden,  Journal of Insect Science,  19:1-9. 2019.
Invasive insect species can act as a plague across the globe, capable of vast expansion and rapid, proliferate reproduction. The spread of pathogens of serious diseases such as malaria and Zika virus and damages to agricultural crops number some of the afflictions invasive ...

Identification and characterisation of a Masculinizer homolog in the diamondback moth Plutella xylostella

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Harvey-Samuel, T., V. C. Norman, R. Carter, E. Lovett and L. Alphey,  Insect Molecular Biology,  2019:2019. 2019.
Recently, a novel sex-determination system was identified in the silkworm (Bombyx mori) in which a piRNA encoded on the female-specific W chromosome silences a Z-linked gene (Masculinizer) which would otherwise initiate male sex-determination and dosage compensation. ...

A novel drug-inducible sex separation technique for insects

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Kandul, N. P., J. Liu, A. D. Hsu, B. A. Hay and O. S. Akbari,  bioRxiv,  2019:2019.12.13.875716. 2019.
Large sterile male releases are the gold standard for most insect population control methods and thus precise sex sorting is essential to the success of these technologies. Sex sorting is especially important for mosquito control because female mosquitoes bite and transmit ...

The bold plan to end malaria with a gene drive

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VOX,  2019.

Out for blood: the fight against the planet’s deadliest creature

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Matsangou, E.,  The New Economy,  2019.
The deadliest creature on the planet is not a great white shark, a starved lion, an enraged hippopotamus or a poisonous snake – it’s the minute mosquito. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), mosquitoes kill millions of people each year, with malaria – the most ...

Evolutionary simulations of Z-linked suppression gene drives

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L. Holman,  Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences,  286:1-9. 2019.
Synthetic gene drives may soon be used to suppress or eliminate populations of disease vectors, pathogens, invasive species, and agricultural pests. Recent proposals have focused on using Z-linked gene drives to control species with ZW sex determination, which include ...

Assessment of a split homing based gene drive for efficient knockout of multiple genes

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Kandul, N. P., J. Liu, A. Buchman, V. M. Gantz, E. Bier and O. S. Akbari,  bioRxiv,  2019:706929. 2019.
Homing based gene drives (HGD) possess the potential to spread linked cargo genes into natural populations and are poised to revolutionize population control of animals. Given that host-encoded genes have been identified that are important for pathogen transmission, targeting ...

Interpopulation spread of a parasitic B chromosome is unlikely through males in the grasshopper Eyprepocnemis plorans

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M. I. Manrique-Poyato, J. Cabrero, M. D. López-León, F. Perfectti, R. Gómez and J. P. M. Camacho,  Heredity,  124:197-206. 2019.
The near-neutral model of B chromosome evolution predicts that population invasion is quite fast. To test this prediction, in 1994, we introduced males of the grasshopper Eyprepocnemis plorans from a B-carrying population into a B-lacking population and monitored the evolution of ...

Effective strategies for safeguarding CRISPR gene-drive experiments

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ScienceDaily,  ScienceDaily,  2019.
Researchers have demonstrated for the first time how two molecular strategies can safeguard CRISPR gene-drive experiments in the lab, according to a new study.

Genome-wide transcriptome profiling reveals genes associated with meiotic drive system of Aedes aegypti

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Shin, DB, K. Susanta; Severson, W. David,  Insects,  10:e25. 2019.
Aedes aegypti is an important mosquito vector of several arboviruses, including dengue, yellow fever, Zika, and Chikungunya, which cause significant human morbidity and mortality globally. In certain populations of this mosquito, a native meiotic drive system causes abnormal ...

Killing two bugs with one stone: a perspective for targeting multiple pest species by incorporating reproductive interference into sterile insect technique

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Honma, AK, N.; Noriyuki, S.,  Pest Management Science,  75:571-577. 2019.
The sterile insect technique is an environmentally friendly method to control and even eradicate agricultural and veterinary insect pests without using chemical pesticides in excess. However, the continuous production and release of sterile insects is economically costly and ...

Arthropod containment guidelines, version 3.2

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Higgs, S,  Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases,  19:149-151. 2019.
In 2003, just a few months after I became editor of Vector-; Borne and Zoonotic Diseases, we published the Arthropod; Containment Guidelines, likely our first of what would become; known as an Open Access publication. The concept to; produce the guidelines resulted from a ...

Gene drives as a response to infection and resistance

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Hayirli, TCM, P.F.,  Infection and Drug Resistance,  12:229-234. 2019.
Vector-borne infectious diseases continue to be a major threat to public health. Although some prevention and treatment modalities exist for these diseases, resistance to such modalities, exacerbated by global climate change, remains a fundamental challenge. Developments in ...

Efficient allelic-drive in Drosophila

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Guichard, AH, T.; Bobik, M.; Xu, X. R. S.; Klanseck, C.; Kushwah, R. B. S.; Berni, M.; Kaduskar, B.; Gantz, V. M.; Bier, E.,  Nature Communications,  10:1640. 2019.
Gene-drive systems developed in several organisms result in super-Mendelian inheritance of transgenic insertions. Here, we generalize this "active genetic" approach to preferentially transmit allelic variants (allelic-drive) resulting from only a single or a few nucleotide ...

Cleave and Rescue, a novel selfish genetic element and general strategy for gene drive

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Oberhofer, GI, T.; Hay, B. A.,  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,  116:6250-6259. 2019.
There is great interest in being able to spread beneficial traits throughout wild populations in ways that are self-sustaining. Here, we describe a chromosomal selfish genetic element, CleaveR [Cleave and Rescue (ClvR)], able to achieve this goal. ClvR comprises two linked ...

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated 9-mediated mutagenesis of the multiple edematous wings gene induces muscle weakness and flightlessness in Bactrocera dorsalis (Diptera: Tephritidae)

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Zheng, WL, Q.; Sun, H.; Ali, M. W.; Zhang, H.,  Insect Molecular Biology,  28:222-234. 2019.
The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated 9 (Cas9) system is a versatile, efficient and heritable gene editing tool that can be useful for genome engineering. Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) is a major pest of agriculture that causes ...

Efficient somatic and germline genome engineering of Bactrocera dorsalis by the CRISPR/Cas9 system

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Zhao, STX, Z. Z.; Liu, Z. G.; Liu, Y. H.; Liu, X. R.; Chen, Z.; Li, J. H.; Yan, R. H.,  Pest Management Science,  75:1921-1932. 2019.
Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel), a very destructive insect pest of many fruits and vegetables, is widespread in many Asian countries. To facilitate control of this pest, it is essential to investigate its genetics and gene function using targeted gene disruption. RESULTS Here, we ...

Gene drive for population genetic control: non-functional resistance and parental effects

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Beaghton, AKH, Andrew; Nolan, Tony; Crisanti, Andrea; Burt, Austin,  Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences,  286:20191586. 2019.
Gene drive is a natural process of biased inheritance that, in principle, could be used to control pest and vector populations. As with any form of pest control, attention should be paid to the possibility of resistance evolving. For nuclease-based gene drive aimed at suppressing ...

Gene driving the farm: who decides, who owns, and who benefits?

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Montenegro de Wit, M,  Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems,  43:1054-1074. 2019.
This commentary essay explores the social and ecological implications of gene-driving agriculture.

Targeting female reproduction in insects with biorational insecticides for pest management: a critical review with suggestions for future research

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Smagghe, GZ, M.; Retnakaran, A.,  Current Opinion in Insect Science,  31:65-69. 2019.
Of the different approaches to pest control, use of juvenile hormone analogs (e.g. methoprene), molting hormone (20-hydroxyecdysone) analogs (e.g. tebufenozide) and chitin synthesis inhibitors (e.g. diflubenzuron) has dominated this field. Since they adversely interfere with the ...

A Framework for the risk assessment and management of gene drive technology in contained use

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van 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

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Burt, 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 ...

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

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James, 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

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Buchman, 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 ...

Engineered Reciprocal Chromosome Translocations Drive High Threshold, Reversible Population Replacement in Drosophila

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Buchman, 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 ...

Rapid comeback of males: evolution of male-killer suppression in a green lacewing population

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Hayashi, 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 ...

Origin, composition, and structure of the supernumerary B chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster

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Hanlon, 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 ...

Improved CRISPR-based suppression gene drives mitigate resistance and impose a large reproductive load on laboratory-contained mosquito populations

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Hammond, 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 ...

Genetics and genomics of an unusual selfish sex ratio distortion in an insect

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Hamilton, 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 ...

Satellite DNAs unveil clues about the ancestry and composition of B chromosomes in three grasshopper species

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Milani, 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 ...

Gene flow mediates the role of sex chromosome meiotic drive during complex speciation

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Meiklejohn, 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 ...

CRISPR-based gene drives for pest control

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McFarlane, GRW, C. Bruce A.; Lillico, Simon G.,  Trends in Biotechnology,  36:130-133. 2018.
Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-based gene drives (GDs) could be used to spread desirable genetic elements through wild populations. With the imminent development of this technology in vertebrates, we believe that it is timely to highlight two ...

Unexpected patterns of segregation distortion at a selfish supergene in the fire ant Solenopsis invicta

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Ross, KGS, DeWayne,  BMC Genetics,  19:101. 2018.
The Sb supergene in the fire ant Solenopsis invicta determines the form of colony social organization, with colonies whose inhabitants bear the element containing multiple reproductive queens and colonies lacking it containing only a single queen. Several features of this ...

Reducing resistance allele formation in CRISPR gene drive

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Champer, JL, Jingxian; Oh, Suh Yeon; Reeves, Riona; Luthra, Anisha; Oakes, Nathan; Clark, Andrew G.; Messer, Philipp W.,  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,  115:5522-5527. 2018.
A functioning gene drive mechanism could fundamentally change our strategies for the control of vector-borne diseases, such as malaria, dengue, and Zika. CRISPR homing gene drive promises such a mechanism, which could be used to rapidly spread genetic modifications among the ...

A CRISPR–Cas9 gene drive targeting doublesex causes complete population suppression in caged Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes

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Kyrou, KH, Andrew M.; Galizi, Roberto; Kranjc, Nace; Burt, Austin; Beaghton, Andrea K.; Nolan, Tony; Crisanti, Andrea,  Nature Biotechnology,  36:1062–1066. 2018.
In the human malaria vector Anopheles gambiae, the gene doublesex (Agdsx) encodes two alternatively spliced transcripts, dsx-female (AgdsxF) and dsx-male (AgdsxM), that control differentiation of the two sexes. The female transcript, unlike the male, contains an exon (exon 5) ...

Redkmer: An assembly-free pipeline for the identification of abundant and specific X-chromosome target sequences for X-shredding by CRISPR endonucleases

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Papathanos, PAW, Nikolai,  CRISPR Journal,  1:88-98. 2018.
CRISPR-based synthetic sex ratio distorters, which operate by shredding the X-chromosome during male meiosis, are promising tools for the area-wide control of harmful insect pest or disease vector species. X-shredders have been proposed as tools to suppress insect populations by ...

Behavior of homing endonuclease gene drives targeting genes required for viability or female fertility with multiplexed guide RNAs

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Oberhofer, GI, Tobin; Hay, Bruce A.,  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,  115:e9343. 2018.
Homing endonuclease gene (HEG)-based gene drive can bring about population suppression when genes required for viability or fertility are targeted. However, these strategies are vulnerable to failure through mechanisms that create alleles resistant to cleavage but that retain ...

Consequences of resistance evolution in a Cas9-based sex conversion-suppression gene drive for insect pest management

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Carrami, Eli M., ME, Kolja N.; Ahmed, Hassan M. M.; Sánchez C., Héctor M.; Dippel, Stefan; Marshall, John M.; Wimmer, Ernst A.,  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,  115:6189-6194. 2018.
Resistance evolution caused by CRISPR/Cas9 gene-drive systems has a major impact on both the future scientific design of such gene-drive systems and on the politics of regulating experimentation and use of such systems. In our study, we show that in-frame drive-resistant alleles ...

Strong hybrid male incompatibilities impede the spread of a selfish chromosome between populations of a fly

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Verspoor Rudi, LSJ, M. L.; Mannion Natasha, L. M.; Hurst Gregory, D. D.; Price Tom, A. R.,  Evolution Letters,  2:169-179. 2018.
Meiotically driving sex chromosomes manipulate gametogenesis to increase their transmission at a cost to the rest of the genome. The intragenomic conflicts they produce have major impacts on the ecology and evolution of their host species. However, their ecological dynamics ...

The IAEA and Food – Tsetse Fly Eradication – Senegal

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International Atomic Energy Agency,  IAEA/FAO,  2017.
Senegal has successfully integrated the Sterile Insect Technique into its tsetse fly control project in the Niayes region. This nuclear technique suppresses or even eradicates insect pest by using radiation to sterilize primarily males. The disease that tsetse flies transmit can ...

Gene Drive for Mosquito Control: Where Did It Come from and Where Are We Headed?

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Macias, VMO, J. R.; Rasgon, J. L.,  International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health,  14:e1006. 2017.
Mosquito-borne pathogens place an enormous burden on human health. The existing toolkit is insufficient to support ongoing vector-control efforts towards meeting disease elimination and eradication goals. The perspective that genetic approaches can potentially add a significant ...

Introduction of a male-harming mitochondrial haplotype via ‘Trojan Females’ achieves population suppression in fruit flies

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Wolff, JNG, N. J.; Tompkins, D. M.; Dowling, D. K.,  eLife,  6:e23551. 2017.
Pests are a global threat to biodiversity, ecosystem function, and human health. Pest control approaches are thus numerous, but their implementation costly, damaging to non-target species, and ineffective at low population densities. The Trojan Female Technique (TFT) is a ...

Novel CRISPR/Cas9 gene drive constructs reveal insights into mechanisms of resistance allele formation and drive efficiency in genetically diverse populations

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Champer, JR, Riona; Oh, Suh Yeon; Liu, Chen; Liu, Jingxian; Clark, Andrew G.; Messer, Philipp W.,  PLOS Genetics,  13:e1006796. 2017.
Author summary Gene drive systems provide a wide array of potential applications, including new strategies for the control of vector-borne diseases. For example, a functioning gene drive system could rapidly spread a genetically modified allele designed to reduce pathogen ...

A pooled sequencing approach identifies a candidate meiotic driver in Drosophila

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Wei, KHCR, H. M.; Rathnam, C.; Lee, J.; Lin, D. A. N.; Ji, S. Q.; Mason, J. M.; Clark, A. G.; Barbash, D. A.,  Genetics,  206:451-465. 2017.
Meiotic drive occurs when a selfish element increases its transmission frequency above the Mendelian ratio by hijacking the asymmetric divisions of female meiosis. Meiotic drive causes genomic conflict and potentially has a major impact on genome evolution, but only a few drive ...

X chromosome drive in a widespread Palearctic woodland fly, Drosophila testacea

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Keais, GLH, M. A.; Gowen, B. E.; Perlman, S. J.,  Journal of Evolutionary Biology,  30:1185-1194. 2017.
Selfish genes that bias their own transmission during meiosis can spread rapidly in populations, even if they contribute negatively to the fitness of their host. Driving X chromosomes provide a clear example of this type of selfish propagation. These chromosomes have important ...

Requirements for Driving Antipathogen Effector Genes into Populations of Disease Vectors by Homing

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Beaghton, AH, Andrew; Nolan, Tony; Crisanti, Andrea; Godfray, H. Charles J.; Burt, Austin,  Genetics,  205:1587-1596. 2017.
There is a need for new interventions against the ongoing burden of vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue. One suggestion has been to develop genes encoding effector molecules that block parasite development within the vector, and then use the nuclease-based homing ...

Eradicating Mosquitoes? The promise and peril of gene drive technologies.

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Jun, B-O,  Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics,  27:113-116. 2017.
This paper discusses the ethical issues associated with genetic modification of mosquito species that are human disease vectors. The Oxitec genetically changed mosquito—a variant of a species called Aedes aegypti, OX513A, is taken as an example. The benefits and risks are ...

Vector control with driving Y chromosomes: modelling the evolution of resistance

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Beaghton, AB, P. J.; Burt, A.,  Malaria Journal,  16:286. 2017.
: The introduction of new malaria control interventions has often led to the evolution of resistance, both of the parasite to new drugs and of the mosquito vector to new insecticides, compromising the efficacy of the interventions. Recent progress in molecular and population ...

Results from the Workshop “Problem Formulation for the Use of Gene Drive in Mosquitoes”

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Roberts, ADA, P. P.; Okumu, F.; Quemada, H.; Savadogo, M.; Singh, J. A.; James, S.,  American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene,  96:530-533. 2017.
Reducing the incidence of malaria has been a public health priority for nearly a century. New technologies and associated vector control strategies play an important role in the prospect of sustained reductions. The development of the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing system has generated ...

The creation and selection of mutations resistant to a gene drive over multiple generations in the malaria mosquito

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Hammond, AMK, Kyros; Bruttini, Marco; North, Ace; Galizi, Roberto; Karlsson, Xenia; Kranjc, Nace; Carpi, Francesco M.; D’Aurizio, Romina; Crisanti, Andrea; Nolan, Tony,  PLOS Genetics,  13:e1007039. 2017.
Gene drives are selfish genetic elements that are able to bias their own inheritance among offspring. Starting from very low frequencies they can rapidly invade a population in just a few generations, even when imposing a fitness cost. Gene drives based on the precise DNA cutting ...

Driving out malaria

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Nolan, TC, A.,  Scientist,  2017.
In recent years, researchers have sequenced the genomes of several Anopheles mosquito species, including those responsible for nearly all of the malaria transmission in Africa. With this information, they have begun to identify the genes underlying the insects’ ability to ...

Prospects and challenges of CRISPR/Cas genome editing for the study and control of neglected vector-borne nematode diseases

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M. Zamanian and E. C. Andersen,  The FEBS Journal,  283:3204-3221. 2016.
Neglected tropical diseases caused by parasitic nematodes inflict an immense health and socioeconomic burden throughout much of the developing world. Current estimates indicate that more than two billion people are infected with nematodes, resulting in the loss of 14 million ...

Cheating evolution: engineering gene drives to manipulate the fate of wild populations

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Champer, JB, A.; Akbari, O. S.,  Nature Reviews Genetics,  17:146-159. 2016.
Engineered gene drives - the process of stimulating the biased inheritance of specific genes - have the potential to enable the spread of desirable genes throughout wild populations or to suppress harmful species, and may be particularly useful for the control of vector-borne ...

Gene drive through a landscape: Reaction-diffusion models of population suppression and elimination by a sex ratio distorter

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Beaghton, AB, P. J.; Burt, A.,  Theoretical Population Biology,  108:51-69. 2016.
Some genes or gene complexes are transmitted from parents to offsprihg at a greater-than-Mendelian rate, and can spread and persist in populations even if they cause some harm to the individuals carrying them. Such genes may be useful for controlling populations or species that ...

Driven to extinction? The ethics of eradicating mosquitoes with gene-drive technologies

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Pugh, J,  Journal of Medical Ethics,  42:578-581. 2016.
Mosquito-borne diseases represent a significant global disease burden, and recent outbreaks of such diseases have led to calls to reduce mosquito populations. Furthermore, advances in gene-drive' technology have raised the prospect of eradicating certain species of mosquito via ...

Occasional recombination of a selfish X-chromosome may permit its persistence at high frequencies in the wild

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Pieper, KED, K. A.,  Journal of Evolutionary Biology,  29:2229-2241. 2016.
The sex-ratio X-chromosome (SR) is a selfish chromosome that promotes its own transmission to the next generation by destroying Y-bearing sperm in the testes of carrier males. In some natural populations of the fly Drosophila neotestacea, up to 30% of the X-chromosomes are SR ...

Gene silencing and gene drive in dengue vector control

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Paulraj, MGI, S.; Reegan, A. D.,  Indian Journal of Natural Products and Resources,  7:193-200. 2016.
Vector-borne diseases are the most feared diseases throughout the world. Mosquitoes are the prime human disease vectors as they are responsible for nearly one million human deaths every year. So they are declared as the most dangerous insects to mankind. Aedes aegypti and Ae. ...

Mechanisms of sex determination and transmission ratio distortion in Aedes aegypti

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Hoang, KPT, T. M.; Ho, T. X.; Le, V. S.,  Parasites & Vectors,  9:49. 2016.
: More effective mosquito control strategies are urgently required due to the increasing prevalence of insecticide resistance. The sterile insect technique (SIT) and the release of insects carrying a dominant lethal allele (RIDL) are two proposed methods for ...

Rapid evolution of a Y-chromosome heterochromatin protein underlies sex chromosome meiotic drive

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Helleu, QG, P. R.; Dubruille, R.; Ogereau, D.; Prud'homme, B.; Loppin, B.; Montchamp-Moreau, C.,  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,  113:4110-4115. 2016.
Sex chromosome meiotic drive, the non-Mendelian transmission of sex chromosomes, is the expression of an intragenomic conflict that can have extreme evolutionary consequences. However, the molecular bases of such conflicts remain poorly understood. Here, we show that a young and ...

A CRISPR-Cas9 gene drive system-targeting female reproduction in the malaria mosquito vector Anopheles gambiae

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Hammond, AG, R.; Kyrou, K.; Simoni, A.; Siniscalchi, C.; Katsanos, D.; Gribble, M.; Baker, D.; Marois, E.; Russell, S.; Burt, A.; Windbichler, N.; Crisanti, A.; Nolan, T.,  Nature Biotechnology,  34:78-83. 2016.
Gene drive systems that enable super-Mendelian inheritance of a transgene have the potential to modify insect populations over a timeframe of a few years. We describe CRISPR-Cas9 endonuclease constructs that function as gene drive systems in Anopheles gambiae, the main vector for ...

The dawn of active genetics

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Gantz, VMB, E.,  Bioessays,  38:50-63. 2016.
On December 18, 2014, a yellow female fly quietly emerged from her pupal case. What made her unique was that she had only one parent carrying a mutant allele of this classic recessive locus. Then, one generation later, after mating with a wild-type male, all her offspring ...

Double trouble: combined action of meiotic drive and Wolbachia feminization in Eurema butterflies

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Kern, PC, J. M.; Kageyama, D.; Riegler, M.,  Biology Letters,  11:20150095. 2015.
Arthropod sex ratios can be manipulated by a diverse range of selfish genetic elements, including maternally inherited Wolbachia bacteria. Feminization by Wolbachia is rare but has been described for Eurema mandarina butterflies. In this species, some phenotypic and functional ...

Sex chromosome drive

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Helleu, QG, P. R.; Montchamp-Moreau, C.,  Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology,  7:a017616. 2015.
Sex chromosome drivers are selfish elements that subvert Mendel's first law of segregation and therefore are over represented among the products of meiosis. The sex-biased progeny produced then fuels an extended genetic conflict between the driver and the rest of the genome. Many ...

Highly efficient Cas9-mediated gene drive for population modification of the malaria vector mosquito Anopheles stephensi

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Gantz, VMJ, N.; Tatarenkova, O.; Fazekas, A.; Macias, V. M.; Bier, E.; James, A. A.,  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,  112:e6736-e6743. 2015.
Genetic engineering technologies can be used both to create transgenic mosquitoes carrying antipathogen effector genes targeting human malaria parasites and to generate gene-drive systems capable of introgressing the genes throughout wild vector populations. We developed a highly ...

The mutagenic chain reaction: A method for converting heterozygous to homozygous mutations

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V. M. Gantz and E. Bier,  Science,  348:442. 2015.
Loss-of-function mutations may only produce a mutant phenotype when both copies of the gene are mutated. Gantz and Bier developed a method they call mutagenic chain reaction (MCR) that autocatalytically produces homozygous mutations. MCR uses the initial mutated allele to cause a ...

Origin, evolution, and population genetics of the selfish Segregation Distorter gene duplication in European and African populations of Drosophila melanogaster

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Brand, CLL, A. M.; Presgraves, D. C.,  Evolution,  69:1271-1283. 2015.
Meiotic drive elements are a special class of evolutionarily selfish genes that subvert Mendelian segregation to gain preferential transmission at the expense of homologous loci. Many drive elements appear to be maintained in populations as stable polymorphisms, their equilibrium ...

Sex-ratio meiotic drive and Y-linked resistance in Drosophila affinis

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Unckless, RLL, A. M.; Clark, A. G.,  Genetics,  199:831-840. 2015.
Genetic elements that cheat Mendelian segregation by biasing transmission in their favor gain a significant fitness benefit. Several examples of sex-ratio meiotic drive, where one sex chromosome biases its own transmission at the cost of the opposite sex chromosome, exist in ...

A synthetic sex ratio distortion system for the control of the human malaria mosquito

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Galizi, RD, L. A.; Menichelli, M.; Bernardini, F.; Deredec, A.; Burt, A.; Stoddard, B. L.; Windbichler, N.; Crisanti, A.,  Nature Communications,  5:3977. 2014.
It has been theorized that inducing extreme reproductive sex ratios could be a method to suppress or eliminate pest populations. Limited knowledge about the genetic makeup and mode of action of naturally occurring sex distorters and the prevalence of co-evolving suppressors has ...

Biased transmission of sex chromosomes in the aphid Myzus persicae is not associated with reproductive mode

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Wilson, ACCD, R. N.; Vorburger, C.,  PLOS One,  9:1-12. 2014.
Commonly, a single aphid species exhibits a wide range of reproductive strategies including cyclical parthenogenesis and obligate parthenogenesis. Sex determination in aphids is chromosomal; females have two X chromosomes, while males have one. X chromosome elimination at male ...

Male eyespan size is associated with meiotic drive in wild stalk-eyed flies (Teleopsis dalmanni)

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Cotton, AJF, M.; Cotton, S.; Pomiankowski, A.,  Heredity,  112:363-369. 2014.
This study provides the first direct evidence from wild populations of stalk-eyed flies to support the hypothesis that male eyespan is a signal of meiotic drive. Several stalk-eyed fly species are known to exhibit X-linked meiotic drive. A recent quantitative trait locus analysis ...

A selfish gene chastened: Tribolium castaneum Medea M (4) is silenced by a complementary gene

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Thomson, MS,  Genetica,  142:161-167. 2014.
Maternal-effect dominant embryonic arrest (Medea) of Tribolium castaneum are autosomal factors that act maternally to cause the death of any progeny that do not inherit them. This selfish behavior is thought to result from a maternally expressed poison and zygotically expressed ...

Heritable strategies for controlling insect vectors of disease

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Burt, A,  Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences,  369:20130432. 2014.
Mosquito-borne diseases are causing a substantial burden of mortality, morbidity and economic loss in many parts of the world, despite current control efforts, and new complementary approaches to controlling these diseases are needed. One promising class of new interventions ...

Meiotic drive impacts expression and evolution of X-linked genes in stalk-eyed flies

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Reinhardt, JAB, C. L.; Paczolt, K. A.; Johns, P. M.; Baker, R. H.; Wilkinson, G. S.,  PLOS Genetics,  10:e1004362. 2014.
Although sex chromosome meiotic drive has been observed in a variety of species for over 50 years, the genes causing drive are only known in a few cases, and none of these cases cause distorted sex-ratios in nature. In stalk-eyed flies (Teleopsis dalmanni), driving X chromosomes ...

Regulatory experience and challenges for the release of GM insects

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Beech, C,  Journal Fur Verbraucherschutz Und Lebensmittelsicherheit-Journal of Consumer Protection and Food Safety,  9:S71-S76. 2014.
Genetically modified (GM) insects are a potentially valuable new tool for the biological control of insect pests of humans, animals and plants. Considerable progress has been made recently in transfer of GM insects from the laboratory to release and evaluation in the environment. ...

Novel synthetic Medea selfish genetic elements drive population replacement in Drosophila: A theoretical exploration of Medea-dependent population suppression

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Akbari, OSC, C. H.; Marshall, J. M.; Huang, H. X.; Antoshechkin, I.; Hay, B. A.,  ACS Synthetic Biology,  3:915-928. 2014.
Insects act as vectors for diseases of plants, animals, and humans. Replacement of wild insect populations with genetically modified individuals unable to transmit disease provides a potentially self-perpetuating method of disease prevention. Population replacement requires a ...

Medusa: A novel gene drive system for confined suppression of insect populations

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Marshall, JMH, B. A.,  PLOS One,  9:e102694. 2014.
Gene drive systems provide novel opportunities for insect population suppression by driving genes that confer a fitness cost into pest or disease vector populations; however regulatory issues arise when genes are capable of spreading across international borders. Gene drive ...

The organization and evolution of the Responder satellite in species of the Drosophila melanogaster group: dynamic evolution of a target of meiotic drive

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Larracuente, AM,  BMC Evolutionary Biology,  14:233. 2014.
: Satellite DNA can make up a substantial fraction of eukaryotic genomes and has roles in genome structure and chromosome segregation. The rapid evolution of satellite DNA can contribute to genomic instability and genetic incompatibilities between species. Despite its ubiquity ...

Guidance on the environmental risk assessment of genetically modified animals

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European Food Safety Authority,  European Food Safety Authority,  2013.
This document describes the six sequential steps for the ERA of GM animals, as indicated in Directive 2001/18/EC: (1) problem formulation including hazard and exposure identification; (2) hazard characterisation; (3) exposure characterisation; (4) risk characterisation; (5) risk ...

Elimination of Y chromosome-bearing spermatids during spermiogenesis in an autosomal sex-ratio mutant of Drosophila simulans

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Yasuno, YI, Y. H.; Yamamoto, M. T.,  Genes & Genetic Systems,  88:113-126. 2013.
Sex ratio distortion, which is commonly abbreviated as sex-ratio, has been studied in many Drosophila species, but the mechanism remains largely unknown. Here, we report on the sex-ratio mutant of D. simulans named excess of females (exf). The third chromosomal recessive mutation ...

Modelling the spatial spread of a homing endonuclease gene in a mosquito population

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North, AB, A.; Godfray, H. C. J.,  Journal of Applied Ecology,  50:1216-1225. 2013.
Homing endonuclease genes (HEGs) exist naturally in many single-celled organisms and can show extremely strong genetic drive allowing them to spread through populations into which they are introduced. They are being investigated as tools to manipulate the populations of important ...

Spread of a new parasitic B chromosome variant is facilitated by high gene flow

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Manrique-Poyato, MIL-L, M. D.; Cabrero, J.; Perfectti, F.; Camacho, J. P. M.,  PLOS One,  8:e83712. 2013.
The B-24 chromosome variant emerged several decades ago in a Spanish population of the grasshopper Eyprepocnemis plorans and is currently reaching adjacent populations. Here we report, for the first time, how a parasitic B chromosome (a strictly vertically transmitted parasite) ...

Modeling the dynamics of a non-limited and a self-limited gene drive system in structured Aedes aegypti populations

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Legros, MX, C. G.; Morrison, A.; Scott, T. W.; Lloyd, A. L.; Gould, F.,  PLOS One,  8:e83354. 2013.
Recently there have been significant advances in research on genetic strategies to control populations of disease-vectoring insects. Some of these strategies use the gene drive properties of selfish genetic elements to spread physically linked anti-pathogen genes into local ...

Mutations to the piRNA Pathway Component Aubergine Enhance Meiotic Drive of Segregation Distorter in Drosophila melanogaster

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Gell, SLR, R. A.,  Genetics,  193:771-784. 2013.
Diploid sexual reproduction involves segregation of allelic pairs, ensuring equal representation of genotypes in the gamete pool. Some genes, however, are able to "cheat" the system by promoting their own transmission. The Segregation distorter (Sd) locus in Drosophila ...

The design and in vivo evaluation of engineered I-OnuI-based enzymes for HEG gene drive

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Chan, YST, R.; Jarjour, J.; Huen, D. S.; Stoddard, B. L.; Russell, S.,  PLOS One,  8:e74254. 2013.
The homing endonuclease gene (HEG) drive system, a promising genetic approach for controlling arthropod populations, utilises engineered nucleases to spread deleterious mutations that inactivate individual genes throughout a target population. Previous work with a naturally ...

Optimising homing endonuclease gene drive performance in a semi-refractory species: The Drosophila melanogaster experience

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Chan, YSH, D. S.; Glauert, R.; Whiteway, E.; Russell, S.,  PLOS One,  8:e54130. 2013.
Homing endonuclease gene (HEG) drive is a promising insect population control technique that employs meganucleases to impair the fitness of pest populations. Our previous studies showed that HEG drive was more difficult to achieve in Drosophila melanogaster than Anopheles gambiae ...

Natural variation of the Y chromosome suppresses sex ratio distortion and modulates testis-specific gene expression in Drosophila simulans

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Branco, ATT, Y.; Hartl, D. L.; Lemos, B.,  Heredity,  111:8-15. 2013.
X-linked sex-ratio distorters that disrupt spermatogenesis can cause a deficiency in functional Y-bearing sperm and a female-biased sex ratio. Y-linked modifiers that restore a normal sex ratio might be abundant and favored when a X-linked distorter is present. Here we ...

Local dynamics of a fast-evolving sex-ratio system in Drosophila simulans

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Bastide, HG, P. R.; Ogereau, D.; Cazemajor, M.; Montchamp-Moreau, C.,  Molecular Ecology,  22:5352-5367. 2013.
By distorting Mendelian transmission to their own advantage, X-linked meiotic drive elements can rapidly spread in natural populations, generating a sex-ratio bias. One expected consequence is the triggering of a co-evolutionary arms race between the sex chromosome that carries ...

Germline excision of transgenes in Aedes aegypti by homing endonucleases

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Aryan, AA, M. A. E.; Myles, K. M.; Adelman, Z. N.,  Scientific Reports,  3:1603. 2013.
Aedes (Ae.) aegypti is the primary vector for dengue viruses (serotypes1-4) and chikungunya virus. Homing endonucleases (HEs) are ancient selfish elements that catalyze double-stranded DNA breaks (DSB) in a highly specific manner. In this report, we show that the HEs Y2-I-AniI, ...

A Synthetic Gene Drive System for Local, Reversible Modification and Suppression of Insect Populations

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Akbari, OSM, K. D.; Marshall, J. M.; Huang, H. X.; Ward, C. M.; Hay, B. A.,  Current Biology,  23:671-677. 2013.
Replacement of wild insect populations with genetically modified individuals unable to transmit disease provides a self-perpetuating method of disease prevention but requires a gene drive mechanism to spread these traits to high frequency [1-3]. Drive mechanisms requiring that ...

Genetic mapping a meiotic driver that causes sex ratio distortion in the mosquito Aedes aegypti

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Shin, DM, A.; Severson, D. W.,  Journal of Heredity,  103:303-307. 2012.
An endogenous meiotic driver in the dengue and yellow fever vector mosquito Aedes aegypti can cause highly male-biased sex ratio distortion in crosses from suitable genetic backgrounds. We previously selected a strain that carries a strong meiotic drive gene (D) linked with the ...

Confinement of gene drive systems to local populations: A comparative analysis

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Marshall, JMH, B. A.,  Journal of Theoretical Biology,  294:153-171. 2012.
Mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever pose a major health problem through much of the world. One approach to disease prevention involves the use of selfish genetic elements to drive disease-refractory genes into wild mosquito populations. Recently engineered ...

The Selfish Segregation Distorter Gene Complex of Drosophila melanogaster

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Larracuente, AMP, D. C.,  Genetics,  192:33-53. 2012.
Segregation Distorter (SD) is an autosomal meiotic drive gene complex found worldwide in natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster. During spermatogenesis, SD induces dysfunction of SD+ spermatids so that SD/SD+ males sire almost exclusively SD-bearing progeny rather than ...

Local selection underlies the geographic distribution of sex-ratio drive in Drosophila neotestacea

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Dyer, KA,  Evolution,  66:973-984. 2012.
Selfish genetic elements promote their own transmission to the next generation, often at a cost to the host individual. A sex-ratio (SR) driving X chromosome prevents the maturation of Y-bearing sperm, and as a result is transmitted to 100% of the offspring, all of which are ...

Scrambling eggs: Meiotic drive and the evolution of female recombination rates

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Brandvain, YC, G.,  Genetics,  190:709-723. 2012.
Theories to explain the prevalence of sex and recombination have long been a central theme of evolutionary biology. Yet despite decades of attention dedicated to the evolution of sex and recombination, the widespread pattern of sex differences in the recombination rate is not ...

Requirements for effective malaria control with homing endonuclease genes

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Deredec, AG, H. C. J.; Burt, A.,  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,  108:e874-e880. 2011.
Malaria continues to impose a substantial burden on human health. We have previously proposed that biological approaches to control the mosquito vector of disease could be developed using homing endonuclease genes (HEGs), a class of selfish or parasitic gene that exists naturally ...

Reduced polymorphism associated with X chromosome meiotic drive in the stalk-eyed fly Teleopsis dalmanni

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Christianson, SJB, C. L.; Wilkinson, G. S.,  PLOS One,  6:e27254. 2011.
Sex chromosome meiotic drive has been suggested as a cause of several evolutionary genetic phenomena, including genomic conflicts that give rise to reproductive isolation between new species. In this paper we present a population genetic analysis of X chromosome drive in the ...

Insect population control by homing endonuclease-based gene drive: An evaluation in Drosophila melanogaster

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Chan, YSN, D. A.; Huen, D. S.; Russell, S.,  Genetics,  188:33-44. 2011.
Insects play a major role as vectors of human disease as well as causing significant agricultural losses. Harnessing the activity of customized homing endonuclease genes (HEGs) has been proposed as a method for spreading deleterious mutations through populations with a view to ...

Rapid rise and fall of selfish sex-ratio X Chromosomes in Drosophila simulans: Spatiotemporal analysis of phenotypic and molecular data

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Bastide, HC, M.; Ogereau, D.; Derome, N.; Hospital, F.; Montchamp-Moreau, C.,  Molecular Biology and Evolution,  28:2461-2470. 2011.
Sex-ratio drive, which has been documented in several Drosophila species, is induced by X-linked segregation distorters. Contrary to Mendel's law of independent assortment, the sex-ratio chromosome (X(SR)) is inherited by more than half the offspring of carrier males, resulting ...

A synthetic homing endonuclease-based gene drive system in the human malaria mosquito

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Windbichler, NM, M.; Papathanos, P. A.; Thyme, S. B.; Li, H.; Ulge, U. Y.; Hovde, B. T.; Baker, D.; Monnat, R. J.; Burt, A.; Crisanti, A.,  Nature,  473:212-215. 2011.
Genetic methods of manipulating or eradicating disease vector populations have long been discussed as an attractive alternative to existing control measures because of their potential advantages in terms of effectiveness and species specificity(1-3). The development of ...

Transcript profiling of the meiotic drive phenotype in testis of Aedes aegypti using suppressive subtractive hybridization

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Shin, DYJ, L. Z.; Lobo, N. F.; Severson, D. W.,  Journal of Insect Physiology,  57:1220-1226. 2011.
The meiotic drive gene in Aedes aegypti is tightly linked with the sex determination locus on chromosome 1, and causes highly male-biased sex ratios. We prepared cDNA libraries from testes from the Ae. aegypti 137 strain (driving) and RED strain (non-driving), and used ...

Semele: A Killer-male, rescue-female system for suppression and replacement of insect disease vector populations

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Marshall, JMP, G. W.; Buchman, A. B.; Hay, B. A.,  Genetics,  187:535-551. 2011.
Two strategies to control mosquito-borne diseases, such as malaria and dengue fever, are reducing mosquito population sizes or replacing populations with disease-refractory varieties. We propose a genetic system, Semele, which may be used for both. Semele consists of two ...

Inverse Medea as a novel gene drive system for socal population replacement: A theoretical analysis

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Marshall, JMH, B. A.,  Journal of Heredity,  102:336-341. 2011.
One strategy to control mosquito-borne diseases, such as malaria and dengue fever, on a regional scale is to use gene drive systems to spread disease-refractory genes into wild mosquito populations. The development of a synthetic Medea element that has been shown to drive ...

Gene-drive into insect populations with age and spatial structure: a theoretical assessment

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Huang, YXL, A. L.; Legros, M.; Gould, F.,  Evolutionary Applications,  4:415-428. 2011.
The potential benefits and risks of genetically engineered gene-drive systems for replacing wild pest strains with more benign strains must be assessed prior to any field releases. We develop a computer simulation model to assess the feasibility of using engineered underdominance ...

Changes in sperm tail development associated with Y chromosome meiotic drive leading to an excess of males in the medfly Ceratitis capitata (Diptera: Tephritidae)

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Rendon, PAB, R. D.; Wood, R. J.,  Biological Journal of the Linnean Society,  101:351-359. 2010.
The Mediterranean fruit fly Ceratitis capitata (Wied.) normally produces the sexes in equal ratio but strains carrying the Y chromosome meiotic drive MP (male-producing) factor show an excess of males. This is associated with a loss of sperm, and abnormal sperm structure in terms ...

Molecular signature of epistatic selection: interrogating genetic interactions in the sex-ratio meiotic drive of Drosophila simulans

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Chevin, LMB, H.; Montchamp-Moreau, C.; Hospital, F.,  Genetics Research,  91:171-182. 2009.
Fine scale analyses Of signatures of selection allow assessing quantitative aspects of a Species' evolutionary genetic history, such as the strength of selection on genes. When several selected loci lie in the same genomic region, their epistatic interactions may also be ...

Large-scale selective sweep among Segregation Distorter chromosomes in African populations Drosophila melanogaster

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Presgraves, DCG, P. R.; Cherukuri, A.; Lyttle, T. W.,  PLOS Genetics,  5:e1000463. 2009.
Segregation Distorter (SD) is a selfish, coadapted gene complex on chromosome 2 of Drosophila melanogaster that strongly distorts Mendelian transmission; heterozygous SD/SD(+) males sire almost exclusively SD-bearing progeny. Fifty years of genetic, molecular, and theory work ...

The effect of gene drive on containment of transgenic mosquitoes

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Marshall, JM,  Journal of Theoretical Biology,  258:250-265. 2009.
Mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever continue to be a major health problem through Much of the world. Several new potential approaches to disease control utilize gene drive to spread anti-pathogen genes into the mosquito Population. Prior to a release, these ...

Skeeter Buster: A stochastic, spatially explicit modeling tool for studying Aedes aegypti population replacement and population suppression strategies

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Magori, KL, M.; Puente, M. E.; Focks, D. A.; Scott, T. W.; Lloyd, A. L.; Gould, F.,  PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases,  3:e508. 2009.
Dengue is the most important mosquito-borne viral disease affecting humans. The only prevention measure currently available is the control of its vectors, primarily Aedes aegypti. Recent advances in genetic engineering have opened the possibility for a new range of control ...

Defects in nuclear transport enhance segregation distortion

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McElroy, JMM, R. A.; McLean, J. R.,  Fly,  2:280-290. 2008.
The equal segregation of chromosomes into gametes is a central tenet of Mendelian genetics. It is this process that is responsible for generating predictable outcomes of crosses, as well as subjecting all chromosomes to the natural selective pressures that exert themselves on a ...

Broadening the application of evolutionarily based genetic pest management

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Gould, F,  Evolution,  62:500-510. 2008.
Insect- and tick-vectored diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, and Lyme disease cause human suffering, and current approaches for prevention are not adequate. Invasive plants and animals such as Scotch broom, zebra mussels, and gypsy moths continue to cause environmental ...

Selective sweeps in a 2-locus model for sex-ratio meiotic drive in Drosophila simulans

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Derome, NB, E.; Ogereau, D.; Veuille, M.; Montchamp-Moreau, C.,  Molecular Biology and Evolution,  25:409-416. 2008.
A way to identify loci subject to positive selection is to detect the signature of selective sweeps in given chromosomal regions. It is revealed by the departure of DNA polymorphism patterns from the neutral equilibrium predicted by coalescent theory. We surveyed DNA sequence ...

Guidance for contained field trials of vector mosquitoes engineered to contain a gene drive system: Recommendations of a scientific working group

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Benedict, MDA, P.; Dobson, S.; Gottlieb, M.; Harrington, L.; Higgs, S.; James, A.; James, S.; Knols, B.; Lavery, J.; O'Neill, S.; Scott, T.; Takken, W.; Toure, Y.; Core Working Grp Guidance, Containe,  Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases,  8:127-166. 2008.
The following recommendations represent the response of a group of involved scientists to the need for guidance to aid researchers, government authorities, and community leaders as they consider the design and implementation of field trials to assess the safety and efficacy of ...

Targeting the X chromosome during spermatogenesis induces Y chromosome transmission ratio distortion and early dominant embryo lethality in Anopheles gambiae

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Windbichler, NP, P. A.; Crisanti, A.,  PLOS Genetics,  4:1-9. 2008.
We have exploited the high selectivity of the homing endonuclease I-PpoI for the X-linked Anopheles gambiae 28S ribosomal genes to selectively target X chromosome carrying spermatozoa. Our data demonstrated that in heterozygous males, the expression of I-PpoI in the testes ...

Homing endonuclease mediated gene targeting in Anopheles gambiae cells and embryos

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Windbichler, NP, P. A.; Catteruccia, F.; Ranson, H.; Burt, A.; Crisanti, A.,  Nucleic Acids Research,  35:5922-5933. 2007.
Homing endonuclease genes (HEGs) are selfish genetic elements that combine the capability to selectively disrupt specific gene sequences with the ability to rapidly spread from a few individuals to an entire population through homologous recombination repair events. Because of ...

Small steps or giant leaps for male-killers? Phylogenetic constraints to male-killer host shifts

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Tinsley, MCM, M. E. N.,  BMC Evolutionary Biology,  7:e1000313. 2007.
Background: Arthropods are infected by a wide diversity of maternally transmitted microbes. Some of these manipulate host reproduction to facilitate population invasion and persistence. Such parasites transmit vertically on an ecological timescale, but rare horizontal ...

A sex-ratio meiotic drive system in Drosophila simulans. I: An autosomal suppressor

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Tao, YM, J. P.; Araripe, L.; Ke, Y.; Hartl, D. L.,  PLOS Biology,  5:2560-2575. 2007.
Sex ratio distortion (sex-ratio for short) has been reported in numerous species such as Drosophila, where distortion can readily be detected in experimental crosses, but the molecular mechanisms remain elusive. Here we characterize an autosomal sex-ratio suppressor from D. ...

A sex-ratio meiotic drive system in Drosophila simulans. II: An X-linked distorter

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Tao, YA, L.; Kingan, S. B.; Ke, Y.; Xiao, H.; Hartl, D. L.,  PLOS Biology,  5:2576-2588. 2007.
The evolution of heteromorphic sex chromosomes creates a genetic condition favoring the invasion of sex-ratio meiotic drive elements, resulting in the biased transmission of one sex chromosome over the other, in violation of Mendel's first law. The molecular mechanisms of ...

Introducing desirable transgenes into insect populations using Y-linked meiotic drive – A theoretical assessment

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Huang, YXM, K.; Lloyd, A. L.; Gould, F.,  Evolution,  61:717-726. 2007.
The use of genetic drive mechanisms to replace native mosquito genotypes with individuals bearing antipathogen transgenes is a potential strategy for repressing insect transmission of human diseases such as malaria and dengue. Antipathogen transgenes have been developed and ...

Introducing transgenes into insect populations using combined gene-drive strategies: Modeling and analysis

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Huang, YXM, K.; Lloyd, A. L.; Gould, F.,  Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology,  37:1054-1063. 2007.
Engineered underdominance (EU), meiotic drive (MD) and Wolbachia have been proposed as mechanisms for driving anti-pathogen transgenes into natural populations of insect vectors of human diseases. EU can drive transgenes to high and stable frequencies but requires the release of ...

Chromosome-wide linkage disequilibrium as a consequence of meiotic drive

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Dyer, KAC, B.; Jaenike, J.,  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,  104:1587-1592. 2007.
Adaptation by natural selection proceeds most efficiently when alleles compete solely on the basis of their effects on the survival and reproduction of their carriers. A major condition for this is equal Mendelian segregation, but meiotic drive can short-circuit this process. The ...

Cage trials using an endogenous meiotic drive gene in the mosquito Aedes aegypti to promote population replacement

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Cha, SJM, A.; Chadee, D. D.; Severson, D. W.,  American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene,  74:62-68. 2006.
Control of arthropod-borne diseases based on population replacement with genetically modified noncompetent vectors has been proposed as a promising alternative to conventional control strategies. Due to likely fitness costs associated with vectors manipulated to carry ...

Isolation and characterization of the RanGAP gene in the mosquito Aedes aegypti

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Cha, SJL, N.; Debruyn, B.; Severson, D. W.,  DNA Sequence,  17:223-230. 2006.
A duplicated 3'-truncated version of RanGAP was previously identified as Segregation distorter (Sd), the meiotic drive gene in Drosophila melanogaster. Here we report the cloning and characterization of the complete gene sequence for the RanGAP homolog from the mosquito Aedes ...

Population dynamics of an endogenous meiotic drive system in Aedes aegypti in Trinidad

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Cha, SJC, D. D.; Severson, D. W.,  American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene,  75:70-77. 2006.
An endogenous meiotic drive system was previously reported to be segregating in the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti L. (Diptera: Culicidae) population in Trinidad. The meiotic driver (M-D) is tightly linked to the male determining locus and selectively targets sensitive ...

Fitness effects of X chromosome drive in the stalk-eyed fly, Cyrtodiopsis dalmanni

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Wilkinson, GSJ, P. M.; Kelleher, E. S.; Muscedere, M. L.; Lorsong, A.,  Journal of Evolutionary Biology,  19:1851-1860. 2006.
Sex-ratio (SR) males produce predominantly female progeny because most Y chromosome sperm are rendered nonfunctional. The resulting transmission advantage of X-SR chromosomes should eventually cause population extinction unless segregation distortion is masked by suppressors or ...

Gene drive systems for insect disease vectors

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Sinkins, SPG, F.,  Nature Reviews Genetics,  7:427-435. 2006.
The elegant mechanisms by which naturally occurring selfish genetic elements, such as transposable elements, meiotic drive genes, homing endonuclease genes and Wolbachia, spread at the expense of their hosts provide some of the most fascinating and remarkable subjects in ...

Male biased sex ratio in the Mediterranean fruit fly Ceratitis capitata, an example of Y-chromosome meiotic drive

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Shahjahan, RMR, P. A.; Cook, L. M.; Wood, R. J.,  Heredity,  96:464-470. 2006.
A case of Y-chromosome meiotic drive is reported in the Mediterranean fruit fly Ceratitis capitata. It arose in an irradiated male and results in excess of males. Male excess is inherited strictly from father to son. A Y-linked factor MP (male producer) is proposed. Higher drive ...

Organization of the sex-ratio meiotic drive region in Drosophila simulans

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Montchamp-Moreau, CO, D.; Chaminade, N.; Colard, A.; Aulard, S.,  Genetics,  174:1365-1371. 2006.
Sex-ratio meiotic drive is the preferential transmission of the X chromosome by XY males, which occurs in several Drosophila species and results in female-biased progeny. Although the trait has long been known to exist, its molecular basis remains completely unknown. Here we ...

Sex-ratio meiotic drive in Drosophila simulans: cellular mechanism, candidate genes and evolution

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Montchamp-Moreau, C,  Biochemical Society Transactions,  34:562-565. 2006.
The sex-ratio trait, reported in a dozen Drosophila species, is a type of naturally occurring meiotic drive in which the driving elements are located on the X chromosome. Typically, as the result of a shortage of Y bearing spermatozoa, males carrying a sex-ratio X chromosome ...

Transmission ratio distortion in the human body louse, Pediculus humanus (Insecta : Phthiraptera)

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McMeniman, CJB, S. C.,  Heredity,  96:63-68. 2006.
We studied inheritance at three microsatellite loci in eight F-1 and two F-2 families of the body (clothes) louse of humans, Pediculus humanus. The alleles of heterozygous female-parents were always inherited in a Mendelian fashion in these families. Alleles from heterozygous ...

Evidence of susceptibility and resistance to cryptic X-linked meiotic drive in natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster

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Reed, FAR, R. G.; Aquadro, C. F.,  Evolution,  59:1280-1291. 2005.
There is mounting evidence consistent with a general role of positive selection acting on the Drosophila melanogaster X-chromosome. However, this positive selection need not necessarily arise from forces that are adaptive to the organism. Nonadaptive meiotic drive may exist on ...

Genetic linkage between a sexually selected trait and X chromosome meiotic drive

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Johns, PMW, L. L.; Wilkinson, G. S.,  Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences,  272:2097-2103. 2005.
Previous studies on the stalk-eyed fly, Cyrtodiopsis dalmanni, have shown that males with long eye-stalks win contests and are preferred by females, and artificial selection on male relative eye span alters brood sex-ratios. Subsequent theory proposes that X-linked meiotic drive ...

Gene drive systems in mosquitoes: rules of the road

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James, AA,  Trends in Parasitology,  21:64-67. 2005.
Population replacement strategies for controlling transmission of mosquito-borne diseases call for the introgression of antipathogen effector genes into vector populations. It is anticipated that these genes, if present at high enough frequencies, will impede transmission of the ...

TSETSE GENETICS: Contributions to Biology, Systematics, and Control of Tsetse Flies

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R. H. Gooding and E. S. Krafsur,  Annual Review of Entomology,  50:101-123. 2005.
Tsetse flies (Diptera: Glossinidae) constitute a small, ancient taxon of exclusively hematophagous insects that reproduce slowly and viviparously. Because tsetse flies are the only vectors of pathogenic African trypanosomes, they are a potent and constant threat to humans and ...

Evolution of autosomal suppression of the sex-ratio trait in Drosophila

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Vaz, SCC, A. B.,  Genetics,  166:265-277. 2004.
The sex-ratio trait is the production of female-biased progenies due to X-linked meiotic drive in males of several Drosophila species. The driving X chromosome (called SR) is not fixed due to at least two stabilizing factors: natural selection (favoring ST, the nondriving ...

Reinvestigation of an endogenous meiotic drive system in the mosquito, Aedes aegypti (Diptera : Culicidae)

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Mori, AC, D. D.; Graham, D. H.; Severson, D. W.,  Journal of Medical Entomology,  41:1027-1033. 2004.
We have initiated efforts to determine the molecular basis for the M-D meiotic drive system in the mosquito, Aedes aegypti. The effect of the M-D gene is a highly male-biased sex ratio, but varies depending on the frequency and sensitivity of a susceptible responder m(s) allele. ...

Mapping of paternal-sex-ratio deletion chromosomes localizes multiple regions involved in expression and transmission

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McAllister, BFB, L. W.; Werren, J. H.,  Heredity,  92:5-13. 2004.
The paternal-sex-ratio (PSR) chromosome in the parasitic wasp Nasonia vitripennis is a submetacentric supernumerary (B chromosome). Males transmit PSR, but after fertilization it causes the loss of the paternal autosomes. Paternal genome loss caused by PSR results in the ...

B chromosomes in Sternorrhyncha (Hemiptera, Insecta)

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Maryanska-Nadachowska, A,  Cytogenetic and Genome Research,  106:210-214. 2004.
In the hemipteroid insects of the suborder Sternorrhyncha, B chromosomes are relatively common in comparison with other suborders of Hemiptera. However, the occurrence of supernumerary chromosomes is restricted, in most cases, to several genera or closely related species. At ...

Identification of quantitative trait loci affecting sex determination in the eastern treehole mosquito (Ochlerotatus triseriatus)

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Graham, DHH, J. L.; Black, W. C.,  Journal of Heredity,  95:35-45. 2004.
Laboratory colonies of the eastern treehole mosquito (Ochlerotatus triseriatus (Say)) exhibit a consistent female-biased sex ratio. This is unusual among mosquito species, in which heritable sex ratio distortion is usually male biased and mediated by meiotic drive. Quantitative ...

Sperm survival in female stalk-eyed flies depends on seminal fluid and meiotic drive

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Fry, CLW, G. S.,  Evolution,  58:1622-1626. 2004.
Sperm competition is common in many insect species; however, the mechanisms underlying differences in sperm precedence are not well understood. In the stalk-eyed fly, Cyrtodiopsis whitei (Diptera, Diopsidae), sperm precedence is influenced by the presence of sex chromosome ...

Persistence of an extreme sex-ratio bias in a natural population

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Dyson, EAH, G. D. D.,  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,  101:6520-6523. 2004.
The sex ratio is a key parameter in the evolution and ecology of a species. Selfish genetic elements that bias the sex ratio of affected individuals are well known and characterized, but their effect on populations has been considered limited, because either the element does not ...

Inverted meiosis and meiotic drive in mealybugs

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Bongiorni, SF, P.; Pippoletti, D.; Prantera, G.,  Chromosoma,  112:331-341. 2004.
In the males of lecanoid coccids, or mealybugs, an entire, paternally derived, haploid chromosome set becomes heterochromatic after the seventh embryonic mitotic cycle. In females, both haploid sets are euchromatic throughout the life cycle. In mealybugs, as in all homopteran ...

The B chromosome polymorphism of the grasshopper Eyprepocnemis plorans in North Africa. IV. Transmission of rare B chromosome variants

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Bakkali, MC, J. P. M.,  Cytogenetic and Genome Research,  106:332-337. 2004.
In addition to the principal B chromosome (B-1) in Moroccan populations of the grasshopper Eyprepocnemis plorans, nine B chromosome variants appeared at low frequency. The transmission of five of these rare B chromosome variants through females was analysed in three natural ...

Genetic dissection of hybrid incompatibilities between Drosophila simulans and D-mauritiana. III. Heterogeneous accumulation of hybrid incompatibilities, degree of dominance, and implications for Haldane’s rule

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Tao, YH, D. L.,  Evolution,  57:2580-2598. 2003.
The genetic basis of Haldane's rule was investigated through estimating the accumulation of hybrid incompatibilities between Drosophila simulans and D. mauritiana by means of introgression. The accumulation of hybrid male sterility (HMS) is at least 10 times greater than that of ...

Closing the (Ran)GAP on segregation distortion in Drosophila

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Kusano, AS, C.; Chan, H. Y. E.; Ganetzky, B.,  Bioessays,  25:108-115. 2003.
Segregation Distorter (SD) is a meiotic drive system in Drosophila that causes preferential transmission of the SD chromosome from SD/SD+ males owing to induced dysfunction of SD+ spermatids. Since its discovery in 1956, SD and its mode of action have baffled biologists. ...

Responder (Rsp) alleles in the Segregation Distorter (SD) system of meiotic drive in Drosophila may represent a complex family of satellite repeat sequences

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Houtchens, KL, T. W.,  Genetica,  117:291-302. 2003.
In D. melanogaster males carrying Segregation Distorter (SD) second chromosomes, sperm receiving sensitive alleles of the Responder (Rsp) locus are subject to high rates of dysfunction. The Rsp region is located in 2R immediately adjacent to the centromere in heterochromatic band ...

Does Stellate cause meiotic drive in Drosophila melanogaster?

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Belloni, MT, P.; Bozzetti, M. P.; Palumbo, G.; Robbins, L. G.,  Genetics,  161:1551-1559. 2002.
Drosophila melanogaster males deficient for the crystal (cry) locus of the Y chromosome that carry between 15 and 60 copies of the X-linked Stellate (Ste) gene are semisterile, have elevated levels of nondisjunction, produce distorted sperm genotype ratios (meiotic drive), and ...

Sex-ratio drive in Drosophila simulans: Variation in segregation ratio of X chromosomes from a natural population

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Montchamp-Moreau, CC, M.,  Genetics,  162:1221-1231. 2002.
The sex-ratio trait that exists in a dozen Drosophila species is a case of naturally occurring X chromosome drive that causes males to produce female-biased progeny. Autosomal and Y polymorphism for suppressors are known to cause variation in drive expression, but the X ...

Segregation distortion induced by wild-type RanGAP in Drosophila

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Kusano, AS, C.; Ganetzky, B.,  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,  99:6866-6870. 2002.
Segregation Distorter (SD) is a meiotic drive system in Drosophila that causes preferential transmission of the SD chromosome from SD/SD+ males owing to the induced dysfunction of SD+ spermatids. The key distorter locus, Sid, is a dominant neomorphic allele encoding a truncated, ...

Sperm development, age and sex chromosome meiotic drive in the stalk-eyed fly, Cyrtodiopsis whitei

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Wilkinson, GSS, M. I.,  Heredity,  87:17-24. 2001.
The cytological basis of X chromosome meiotic drive or sex ratio (SR) has been reported for several species of Drosophila but not for other species. Here we describe how sperm development in the stalk-eyed fly, Cyrtodiopsis whitei, influences progeny sex proportion, in order to ...

Meiotic drive alters sperm competitive ability in stalk-eyed flies

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Wilkinson, GSF, C. L.,  Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences,  268:2559-2564. 2001.
Meiotic drive results when sperm carrying a driving chromosome preferentially survive development. Meiotic drive should therefore influence sperm competition because drive males produce fewer sperm than non-drive males. Whether meiotic drive also influences the competitive ...

Sex-ratio segregation distortion associated with reproductive isolation in Drosophila

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Tao, YH, D. L.; Laurie, C. C.,  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,  98:13183-13188. 2001.
Sex-ratio distortion is the most common form of non-Mendelian segregation observed in natural populations. It may occur even more frequently than direct observations suggest, because the dysgenic population consequences of a biased sex ratio are expected to result in the rapid ...

Success in Zanzibar: Eradication of tsetse

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A. R. Msangi, N. Kiwia, I. I. Malele, F. Mramba, K. M. Saleh, W. A. Mussa, K. G. Juma, V. A. Dyck, M. J. B. Vreysen, A. G. Parker, U. Feldmann, Z. R. Zhu and H. Pan,  Area-Wide Control of Fruit Flies and Other Insect Pests,  2000.
There are about 22 species of tsetse flies found nowhere else in the world except in 36 countries of sub-Saharan Africa Tsetse flies transmit a debilitating and often fatal disease, trypanosomosis, which causes tremendous losses of livestock, and severely limits agricultural ...

Glossina austeni (Diptera: Glossinidae) Eradicated on the Island of Unguja, Zanzibar, Using the Sterile Insect Technique

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M. J. B. Vreysen, K. M. Saleh, M. Y. Ali, A. M. Abdulla, Z.-R. Zhu, K. G. Juma, V. A. Dyck, A. R. Msangi, P. A. Mkonyi and H. U. Feldmann,  Journal of Economic Entomology,  123-135. 2000.
An area-wide integrated tsetse eradication project was initiated in Zanzibar in 1994 by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the governments of Tanzania and Zanzibar, to eradicate Glossina austeni Newstead from Unguja Island (Zanzibar) using the sterile insect technique. ...

Non-Mendelian segregation of sex chromosomes in heterospecific Drosophila males

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Dermitzakis, ETM, J. P.; Waldrip, H. M.; Clark, A. G.,  Genetics,  154:687-694. 2000.
Interspecific hybrids and backcrossed organisms generally suffer from reduced viability and/or fertility. To identify and genetically map these defects, we introgressed regions of the Drosophila sechellia genome into the D. simulans genome. A female-biased sex ratio was observed ...

Sex-ratio meiotic drive in Drosophila simulans is related to equational nondisjunction of the Y chromosome

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Cazemajor, MJ, D.; Montchamp-Moreau, C.,  Genetics,  154:229-236. 2000.
The sex-ratio trait, an example of naturally occurring X-linked meiotic drive, has been reported in a dozen Drosophila species. Males carrying a sex-ratio X chromosome produce an excess of female offspring caused by a deficiency of Y-bearing sperm. In Drosophila simulans, such ...

Chromosomally-induced meiotic drive in Drosophila males: Checkpoint or fallout?

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Tomkiel, JE,  Genetica,  109:95-103. 2000.
In male Drosophila melanogaster, anomalies in sex chromosome pairing at meiosis often lead to complete or partial sperm dysfunction. This observation has led to the suggestion that defects in either the efficiency or configuration of chromosome pairing at metaphase trigger a ...

A male-biased primary sex ratio and larval mortality in Eucheira socialis (Lepidoptera : Pieridae)

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Underwood, DLAS, A. M.,  Evolutionary Ecology Research,  1:703-717. 1999.
We investigated the sex ratio and sex-biased mortality in the Mexican pierid butterfly, Eucheira socialis westwoodi. We studied two populations between 1990 and 1997 along Mexico Highway 40, which runs from Mazatlan, Sinaloa to Durango, Durango, Populations occurring between km ...

Genetic and molecular characterization of sting, a gene involved in crystal formation and meiotic drive in the male germ line of Drosophila melanogaster

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Schmidt, AP, G.; Bozzetti, M. P.; Tritto, P.; Pimpinelli, S.; Schafer, U.,  Genetics,  151:749-760. 1999.
The sting mutation, caused by a P element inserted into polytene region 32D, was isolated by a screen for male sterile insertions in Drosophila melanogaster. This sterility is correlated with the presence of crystals in spermatocytes and spermatids that are structurally ...

Truncated RanGAP encoded by the Segregation Distorter locus of Drosophila

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Merrill, CB, L.; Kusano, A.; Ganetzky, B.,  Science,  283:1742-1745. 1999.
Segregation Distorter (SD) in Drosophila melanogaster is a naturally occurring meiotic drive system in which the SD chromosome is transmitted from SD/SD+ males in vast: excess over its homolog owing to the induced dysfunction of SD+-bearing spermatids. The Sd Locus is the key ...

Models of sex-ratio meiotic drive and sexual selection in stalk-eyed flies

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Lande, RW, G. S.,  Genetics Research,  74:245-253. 1999.
Hypertrophied sexually dimorphic eye stalks have evolved independently in several families of Diptera, with the eyespan of males exceeding their total body length in some species. These structures function in intermale contests for territories and in mate attraction, the ...

How common are meiotically driving sex chromosomes in insects?

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Jiggins, FMH, G. D. D.; Majerus, M. E. N.,  American Naturalist,  154:481-483. 1999.
In summary, we argue that the hypothesis that sex chromosome; meiotic drive is common within the insects is in; fact not proved. We feel that, although it is unlikely that; it will be found exclusively in the Diptera, there is a case; to be made that the Diptera are a hot spot ...

Suppression of sex-ratio meiotic drive and the maintenance of Y-chromosome polymorphism in Drosophila

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Jaenike, J,  Evolution,  53:164-174. 1999.
Like several other species of Drosophila, D. quinaria is polymorphic for X-chromosome meiotic drive; matings involving males that carry a "sex-ratio" X chromosome (X(SR)) result in the production of strongly female-biased offspring sex ratios (Jaenike 1996). A survey of isofemale ...

Are Drosophila SR drive chromosomes always balanced?

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Carvalho, ABV, S. C.,  Heredity,  83:221-228. 1999.
SR chromosomes are the best-known case of sex chromosome meiotic drive. These X chromosomes cause the production of female-biased progenies in several Drosophila species; Due to their meiotic drive advantage, they are expected to spread and become fixed, resulting in population ...

Evolution of driving X chromosomes and resistance factors in experimental populations of Drosophila simulans

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Capillon, CA, A.,  Evolution,  53:506-517. 1999.
Sex-ratio drive is a particular case of meiotic drive, described in several Drosophila species, that causes males bearing driving X chromosome to produce a large excess of females in their progeny. In Drosophila simulans, driving X chromosomes and resistance factors located on ...

Male eye span in stalk-eyed flies indicates genetic quality by meiotic drive suppression

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Wilkinson, GSP, D. C.; Crymes, L.,  Nature,  391:276-279. 1998.
In some species, females choose mates possessing ornaments that predict offspring survival(1-5). However, sexual selection by female preference for male genetic quality(6-8) remains controversial because conventional genetic mechanisms maintain insufficient variation in male ...

Male sterility and meiotic drive associated with sex chromosome rearrangements in Drosophila: Role of X-Y pairing

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McKee, BDW, K.; Merrill, C.; Ren, X. J.,  Genetics,  149:143-155. 1998.
In Drosophila melanogaster, deletions of the pericentromeric X heterochromatin cause X-Y nondisjunction, reduced male fertility and distorted sperm recovery ratios (meiotic drive) in combination with a normal Y chromosome and interact with Y-autosome translocations (T(Y;A)) to ...

Malaria: existing methods of vector control and molecular entomology

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Curtis, CFT, H.,  British Medical Bulletin,  54:311-325. 1998.
In general, the most effective means of malaria vector control is the killing of adult mosquitoes with a residual insecticide applied to bednets or sprayed on house walls and ceilings. Major reductions in all-cause child mortality have been achieved in Africa by these means. In ...

Wolbachia as a possible means of driving genes into populations

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Curtis, CFS, S. P.,  Parasitology,  116:S111-S115. 1998.
Cytoplasmic incompatibility consists of sterility in cross matings, the crossing type being maternally inherited. It can be explained by the action of Wolbachia symbionts which are transmitted through the egg cytoplasm and leave an imprint on the sperm which prevents it ...

Polymorphism for Y-linked suppressors of sex-ratio in two natural populations of Drosophila mediopunctata

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Carvalho, ABV, S. C.; Klaczko, L. B.,  Genetics,  146:891-902. 1997.
In several Drosophila species there is a trait known as ''sex-ratio'': males carrying certain X chromosomes (called ''SR'') produce female biased progenies due to X-Y meiotic drive. In Drosophila mediopunctata this trait has a variable expression due to Y-linked suppressors of ...

The sex-ratio trait in Drosophila simulans: Geographical distribution of distortion and resistance

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Atlan, AM, H.; Landre, C.; Montchamp-Moreau, C.,  Evolution,  51:1886-1895. 1997.
The sex-ratio trait we describe here in Drosophila simulans results from X-linked meiotic drive. Males bearing a driving X chromosome can produce a large excess of females (about 90%) in their progeny. This is, however, rarely the case in the wild, where resistance factors, ...

Sex chromosome meiotic drive in stalk-eyed flies

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Presgraves, DCS, E.; Wilkinson, G. S.,  Genetics,  147:1169-1180. 1997.
Meiotically driven sex chromosomes can quickly spread to fixation and cause population extinction unless balanced by selection or suppressed by genetic modifiers. We report results of genetic analyses that demonstrate that extreme female-biased sex ratios in two sister species of ...

Abnormal spermiogenesis is associated with the X-linked sex-ratio trait in Drosophila simulans

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MontchampMoreau, CJ, D.,  Heredity,  79:24-30. 1997.
The sex-ratio trait, known in several Drosophila species, results from X-linked meiotic drive that affects Y-bearing sperm and causes males to produce female-biased progeny. We describe spermiogenesis in three types of D, simulans males: wild-type, sex-ratio, and males that bear ...

The effect of B chromosomes on mating success of the grasshopper Eyprepocnemis plorans

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Martin, SA, P.; HenriquesGil, N.,  Genetica,  97:197-203. 1996.
The mating ability of E. plorans was tested in laboratory conditions in six experimental units composed of ten males and fifteen females during 31 days. When significant differences were found (three from the six cages, and in totals) they involved a decrease of matings involving ...

Further evidence consistent with Stellate’s involvement in meiotic drive

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Hurst, LD,  Genetics,  142:641-643. 1996.
STELLATE is an X-linked multicopy gene found in Drosophila melanogaster and is one of the most bizarre gene arrays yet described (for details see HARDY et al. 1984; LIVAK 1984, 1990; DANILEVSKAYA et al. 1991; BAW~REVA et al. 1992; SHEVELYOV 1992; PALUMBO et al. 1994). The ...

Evidence for B chromosome drive suppression in the grasshopper Eyprepocnemis plorans

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Herrera, JAL, M. D.; Cabrero, J.; Shaw, M. W.; Camacho, J. P. M.,  Heredity,  76:633-639. 1996.
The grasshopper Eyprepocnemis plorans is polymorphic for both a B chromosome and a heterochromatic segment of chromatin on the smallest autosome. Females transmit these to their offspring more frequently after copulating with a male from a population without Bs than after ...

Functional identification of the Segregation Distorter locus of Drosophila melanogaster by germline transformation

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McLean, JRM, C. J.; Powers, P. A.; Ganetzky, B.,  Genetics,  137:201-209. 1994.
Segregation Distorter (SD) is a meiotic drive system in D. melanogaster that results in the failure of SD/SD+ males to transmit SD+ homologs owing to the induced dysfunction of spermatids carrying the normal chromosome. Segregation distorter (Sd), the gene primarily responsible ...

Y-linked suppressors of the sex-ratio trait in Drosophila mediopunctata

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Decarvalho, ABK, L. B.,  Heredity,  73:573-579. 1994.
X-linked meiotic drive causing female-biased progenies is known to occur in nine Drosophila species and is called 'sex-ratio'. In D. mediopunctata this trait is associated with the X:21 chromosome inversion and has variable expression. We describe here a powerful Y-linked ...

Bewildering Bs – An impression of the 1st B-chromosome conference

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Beukeboom, LW,  Heredity,  73:328-336. 1994.
Ever since their first discovery B chromosomes have attracted attention. Why are they so appealing? The standard chromosomes of an organism are A chromosomes; B chromosomes are extra to this normal complement. In the B chromosome 'bible' (Jones & Rees, 1982) Bs are defined as ...

The Segregation Distorter (SD) complex and the accumulation of deleterious genes in laboratory strains of Drosophila melanogaster

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Dominguez, AS, E.; Albornoz, J.; Gutierrez, A.,  Theoretical and Applied Genetics,  87:479-486. 1993.
Segregation Distorter (SD) associated with the second chromosome of D. melanogaster is found in nature at equilibrium frequencies lower than 5%. We report extremely high frequencies of SD (30-50%) in two selected strains, established in 1976, and show it to be responsible for the ...

Autosomal suppressors of sex-ratio in Drosophila mediopunctata

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Decarvalho, ABK, L. B.,  Heredity,  71:546-551. 1993.
The sex-ratio trait has been described as the production of progenies with excess of females due to X-linked meiotic drive in the parental males. This trait has a variable expression in Drosophila mediopunctata. We describe here the existence and chromosomal localization of ...

Deletion analysis of the selfish B-chromosome, Paternal Sex-Ratio (PSR), in the parasitic wasp Nasonia vitripennis

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Beukeboom, LWW, J. H.,  Genetics,  133:637-648. 1993.
Paternal Sex Ratio (PSR) is a ''selfish'' B chromosome in the parasitoid wasp Nasonia vitripennis. It is transmitted via sperm, but causes supercondensation and destruction of the paternal chromosomes in early fertilized eggs. Because this wasp has haplodiploid sex determination, ...

Transmission and expression of the parasitic Paternal Sex-Ratio (PSR) chromosome

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Beukeboom, LWW, J. H.,  Heredity,  70:437-443. 1993.
B-chromosomes are often considered genomic parasites. They are extra to the normal chromosomal complement, are unnecessary for survival of an individual, and are often inherited at higher than Mendelian rates. Paternal Sex Ratio (PSR) is an extreme example of a parasitic ...

The evolution of unusual chromosomal systems in coccoids: Extraordinary sex-ratios revisited

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Haig, D,  Journal of Evolutionary Biology,  6:69-77. 1993.
Coccoids (scale insects) exhibit a wide variety of chromosomal systems. In many species, paternal chromosomes are eliminated from the male germline such that all of a male's sperm transmit an identical set of maternal chromosomes. In such species, an offspring's sex is determined ...

Male and female segregation distortion for heterochromatic supernumerary segments on the s(8) chromosome of the grasshopper Chorthippus jacobsi

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Lopezleon, MDC, J.; Camacho, J. P. M.,  Chromosoma,  101:511-516. 1992.
The mode of inheritance of supernumerary segments located on three different chromosome pairs was investigated in controlled crosses with specimens of the grasshopper Chorthippus jacobsi. While extra segments located on chromosomes M5 and M6 showed Mendelian inheritance, that on ...

Population genetics of a parasitic chromosome – Experimental analysis of PSR in subdivided populaltions

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Beukeboom, LWW, J. H.,  Evolution,  46:1257-1268. 1992.
Nasonia vitripennis is a parasitoid wasp that harbors several non-Mendelian sex-ratio distorters. These include MSR (Maternal Sex Ratio), a cytoplasmic element that causes nearly all-female families, and PSR (Paternal Sex Ratio), a supernumerary chromosome that causes all-male ...

Effects of deletions on mitotic stability of the Paternal Sex-Ratio (PSR) chromosome from Nasonia

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Beukeboom, LWR, K. M.; Werren, J. H.,  Chromosoma,  102:20-26. 1992.
Paternal-Sex-Ratio (PSR) is a B chromosome that causes all-male offspring in the parasitoid wasp Nasonia vitripennis. It is only transmitted via sperm of carrier males and destroys the other paternal chromosomes during the first mitotic division of the fertilized egg. Because of ...

Meiotic drive in Lucilia cuprina and chromosomal evolution

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Foster, GGW, M. J.,  American Naturalist,  137:403-415. 1991.
In females heterozygous for pericentric inversions that alter the relative lengths of the long and short arms of a chromosome, crossing-over within the inversion can lead to unequal segregation at anaphase II, favoring the homologue with the more centrally located centromere. It ...

X-chromosome segregation distortion in Drosophila

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Curtsinger, JW,  American Naturalist,  137:344-348. 1991.
The sex-ratio trait exhibits both discrete and continuous variation in Drosophila pseudoobscura. The discrete variation is caused by X-chromosome meiotic drive. The evolutionary forces maintaining the meiotic-drive polymorphism include strong viability selection against ...

Sex-ratio distortion caused by meiotic drive in mosquitos

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Wood, RJN, M. E.,  American Naturalist,  137:379-391. 1991.
Meiotic-drive genes have been described in two species of mosquito, Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus. In both species, a Y (M)-linked gene causes a change in sex ratio in favor of males. More is known about the Distorter gene (D) in A. aegypti, but the gene in C. ...

Why is Mendelian segregation so exact

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Crow, JF,  Bioessays,  13:305-312. 1991.
The precise 1:1 segregation of Mendelian heredity is ordinarily taken for granted, yet there are numerous examples of 'cheating' genes that perpetuate themselves in the population by biasing the Mendelian process in their favor. One example is the Segregation Distortion system of ...

Male sex-ratio trait in Drosophila pseudoobscura: Frequency of autosomal aneuploid sperm

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Cobbs, GJ, L.; Gordon, L.,  Genetics,  127:381-390. 1991.
Males with the SR X chromosome show the "sex-ratio" (sr) phenotype in which they produce almost entirely daughters. The few sons (about 1%) are invariably sterile X/O males and result entirely from nullo-XY sperm. The "male-sex-ratio" (msr) phenotype is a modified form of sr in ...

The paternal-sex-ratio chromosome of Nasonia

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Werren, JH,  American Naturalist,  137:392-402. 1991.
Paternal sex ratio (PSR) is a supernumerary chromosome that is transmitted through sperm to fertilized eggs and then gains a transmission advantage by causing supercondensation of the paternal chromosomes (except itself). Because of haplodiploidy, this converts diploid females ...

Sex ratio polymorphism in Drosophila pseudoobscura

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Beckenbach, AT,  American Naturalist,  137:340-343. 1991.
I studied "sex-ratio" (SR) genotype frequencies in two populations of Drosophila pseudoobscura from southeastern Arizona: Bear Creek Canyon and Tucson. Wild-inseminated females were collected, their fecundities measured in the laboratory, and their SR genotypes inferred by ...

Segregation distortion in Drosophila melanogaster: Genetic and molecular analysis

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Temin, RGG, B.; Powers, P. A.; Lyttle, T. W.; Pimpinelli, S.; Dimitri, P.; Wu, C. I.; Hiraizumi, Y.,  American Naturalist,  137:287-331. 1991.
The Segregation Distorter (SD) complex in the centromeric region of chromosome 2 in Drosophila melanogaster is responsible for a naturally occurring and strong system of male meiotic drive. Earlier recombinational dissection and deletional analysis showed that the SD complex ...

On the components of Segregation Distortion in Drosophila melanogaster 5: Molecular analysis of the SD locus

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Powers, PAG, B.,  Genetics,  129:133-144. 1991.
Segregation Distorter (SD) is a naturally occurring meiotic drive system comprising at least three distinct loci: Sd, Rsp and E(SD). Heterozygous SD/SD+ males transmit the SD chromosome in vast excess over the normal homolog. The distorted transmission involves the induced ...

X-Y pairing, meiotic drive and ribosomal DNA in Drosophila melanogaster males

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McKee, BD,  American Naturalist,  137:332-339. 1991.
One of the genotypic features responsible for sex-chromosome meiotic drive and sterility in Drosophila melanogaster males has now been defined clearly. Separation of a significant fraction of X euchromatin from the X pairing site causes either meiotic drive or sterility, ...

Meiotic drive against an autosomal supernumerary segment promoted by the presence of a B-chromosome in females of the grasshopper Eyprepocnemis plorans

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Lopezleon, MDC, J.; Camacho, J. P. M.,  Chromosoma,  100:282-287. 1991.
Twenty-seven out of 50 progeny analyses performed with specimens of the grasshopper Eyprepocnemis plorans were informative about the transmission of a supernumerary heterochromatic chromosome segment. The simultaneous presence of a B chromosome in some of the parents involved in ...

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 ...

Tsetse fly eradication in Burkina Faso and evaluation of traps and targets

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M. Clair, D. Cuisance, H. Politzar, P. Merot and B. Bauer,  STERILE INSECT TECHNIQUE FOR TSETSE CONTROL AND ERADICATION,  1990.
Control operations against tsetse flies with the sterile insect technique (SIT) were conducted by the Centre de recherches sur les trypanosomoses animales (CRTA) (Institut d’élevage et de médecine vétérinaire des pays tropicaux/Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit ...

Sex-ratio meiotic drive in Drosophila testacea

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James, ACJ, J.,  Genetics,  126:651-656. 1990.
We document the occurrence of "sex ratio" meiotic drive in natural populations of Drosophila testacea. "Sex ratio" males sire greater than 95% female offspring. Genetic analysis reveals that this effect is due to a meiotically driven X chromosome, as in other species of ...

Thte genetic basis of resistance and sensitivity to the meiotic drive gene D in the mosquito Aedes aegypti L.

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Wood, RJO, N. A.,  Genetica,  72:69-79. 1987.
A study has been made on the genetic basis of meiotic drive at the Distorter (D) locus which, in coupling with the male-determining gene (or region) M on the Y chromosome, causes production of excess male progeny. Its effect is regulated by the sensitivity/resistance of the X ...

Abnormal salivary gland puff associated with meiotic drive in mosquitos (Diptera, Culicidae)

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Sweeny, TLG, P.; Barr, A. R.,  Journal of Medical Entomology,  24:623-627. 1987.
A meiotic drive factor, distorter (d), has been described previously for Culex pipiens L. mosquitoes. Males homozygous for the gene (Md/md) produce few female offspring owing to breakage of the female-determining dyad of chromosome 1 (the sex chromosome) during the first meiotic ...

Control of meiotic drive of B-chromosomes in the mealybug, Pseudococcus affinis (obscurus)

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Nur, UB, B. L. H.,  Genetics,  115:499-510. 1987.
Isofemale lines of Pseudococcus affznis (MASKELL) differ in their ability to maintain B chromosomes (Bs) due to the presence of genotypes that affect the rate of transmission (k) of the Bs. The nature of these genotypes was analyzed by comparing ks of males carrying the same B ...

X-4 Translocation and meiotic drive in Drosophila melanogaster males: Role of sex chromosome pairing

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McKee, B,  Genetics,  116:409-413. 1987.
Males carrying certain X-4 translocations exhibit strongly skewed sperm recovery ratios. The Xp4D half of the translocation disjoins regularly from the Y chromosome and the 4‘XD half disjoins regularly from the normal 4. Yet the smaller member of each bivalent is recovered in ...

The eradication of Glossina-palpalis-palpalis (Robineau-Desvoidy) (diptera, Glossinidae) using traps, insecticide-impregnated targets and the sterile insect technique in central Nigeria

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W. Takken, M. A. Oladunmade, L. Dengwat, H. U. Feldmann, J. A. Onah, S. O. Tenabe and H. J. Hamann,  Bulletin of Entomological Research,  76:275-286. 1986.
The integrated use of biconical traps, insecticide-impregnated targets and the sterile insect technique was developed for the eradication of Glossina palpalis palpalis (Robineau-Desvoidy) in a 1500-km2 area of central Nigeria. Six weeks or more of continuous removal trapping, ...

Polymorphism in the rates of meiotic drive acting on the B-chromosome of Myrmeleotettix maculatus

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Shaw, MWH, G. M.; Anderson, D. A.,  Heredity,  55:61-68. 1985.
A survey of all the available data on meiotic transmission rates in M. maculatus suggests that a polymorphism in female transmission rate exists in most natural populations. Differences in the frequency of the types or in the transmission rates they manifest may exist between ...

Genotypes suppressing meiotic drive of a B-chromosome in the mealybug, Pseudococcus obscurus

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Nur, UB, B. L. H.,  Genetics,  110:73-92. 1985.
The rate of transmission (k) of a supernumerary B chromosome in male mealybugs is shown tq depend strongly on the chromosome set of materpal origin. When both parents came from an isofemale line in which the frequency of the B chromosome increased rapidly and stabilized at a mean ...

Sex-chromosome meiotic drive in Drosophila melanogaster males

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McKee, B,  Genetics,  106:403-422. 1984.
In Drosophila melanogaster males, deficiency for X heterochromatin causes high X-Y nondisjunction and skewed sex chromosome segregation ratios (meiotic drive). Y and XY classes are recovered poorly because of sperm dysfunction. In this study it was found that X heterochromatic ...

Integration of insect sterility and insecticides for control of Glossina morsitans morsitans Westwood (Diptera: Glossinidae) in Tanzania. IV. Application of endosulfan as an aerosol prior to release of sterile males

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D. L. Williamson, D. A. Dame, C. W. Lee, D. B. Gates and P. E. Cobb,  Bulletin of Entomological Research,  73:383-389. 1983.
As part of a programme to test the sterile insect technique against Glossina morsitans morsitans Westw. in Tanzania, two aerial applications of endosulfan were applied to a 195-km2 test area. The applications were made with a 28-day interval to provide an initial reduction in the ...

The fate of autosomeal modifiers of the sex-ratio trait in Drosophila and other sex-linked meiotic drive systems.

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Wu, CI,  Theoretical Population Biology,  24:107-120. 1983.
A model is proposed to analyze the behavior of autosomal suppressor modifiers of "Sex-Ratio" meiotic drive in drosophila. These modifiers, if neutral in fitness, are expected to increase because they tend to be associated with the rare sex (males). However, selection operating on ...

Control of tsetse flies, Glossina spp.

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D. A. Dame and A. M. Jordan,  Advances in Veterinary Science and Comparative Medicine,  25:101-119. 1981.
Studies of SIT in Zimbabwe with releases of chemosterilized G. m. morsitans (Dame and Schmidt, 1970) demonstrated the feasibility of the methodology used both in the laboratory and in the field. Subsequent trials were recently completed in Tanzania, where laboratory bred sterile ...

Meiotic drive at the D(MD) locus and fertility in the mosquito, Aedes aegypti (L)

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Youngson, JW, H. M.; Wood, R. J.,  Genetica,  54:335-340. 1981.
The Distorter gene D in Aedes aegypti shows meiotic drive when associated with the male determining M gene, causing sex ratio distortion in favour of males. The fertility of Distorter (MD /ms) and normal (M/m-) males has been compared after mating them to a series of 20 females ...

A 2-locus model for polymorphism for sex-linked meiotic drive modifiers with possible applications to Aedes aegypti

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Maffi, GJ, S. D.,  Theoretical Population Biology,  19:19-36. 1981.
A two-locus model is presented which shows the possibility of maintaining a polymorphism for modifiers of sex-linked meiotic drive in the absence of fitness differences. The model is very similar to the situation actually found in some laboratory strains of the mosquito Aedes ...

Experimental population-genetics of meiotic drive systems .3: Neutralization of sex-ratio distortion in Drosophila through sex-chromosome aneuploidy

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Lyttle, TW,  Genetics,  98:317-334. 1981.
Laboratory populations of Drosophila melanogaster were challenged by; pseudo-Y drive, which mimics true Y-chromosome meiotic drive through the; incorporation of Segregation Distorter (SD) in a T(Y;2) complex. This causes; extreme sex-ratio distrotion and can ultimately lead to ...

Experimental population-genetics of meiotic drive systems .2: Accumulation of genetic modifiers of Segregation Distorter (SD) in laboratory populations

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Lyttle, TW,  Genetics,  91:339-357. 1979.
The accumulation of modifiers of the meiotic-drive locus Segregation; Distorter (SD) in Drosophila melanogaster was monitored by measuring the; changes in the mean and variance of drive strength (in terms of “make” value); that occur in laboratory populations when SD and SD+ ...

Sex-ratio trait in Drosophila pseudoobscura – Fertility relations of males and meiotic drive.

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Beckenbach, AT,  American Naturalist,  112:97-117. 1978.
In the early analysis of the "sex-ratio" polymorphism (SR) of Drosophila pseudoobscura, complete meiotic drive was assumed, and study centered on the nature of the selective forces opposing its spread. Policansky and Ellison (1970) found that the mechanism of SR involved the ...

Transporting marker gene re (red eye) into a laboratory cage population of Aedes aegypti (Diptera Culicidae), using meiotic drive at MD locus

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Wood, RJC, L. M.; Hamilton, A.; Whitelaw, A.,  Journal of Medical Entomology,  14:461-464. 1978.
An attempt has.been made to use the meiotic drive gene MD to transport a marker re (red eye) into a laboaratory population of the mosquito Aedes aegypti. The experiment produced an increase in re frequency, but also indicated that this gene has unexpectedly high fitness in the ...

Sex ratio distortion caused by meiotic drive in a mosquito Culex pipiens

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Sweeny, TLB, A. R.,  Genetics,  88:427-446. 1978.
A genetic factor, distorter (d), has been discovered that upsets the normal sex ratio of 1 : 1 and results in a large excess of males in Culex pipiens. The effect can be explained by a sex-linked, recessive gene. Males homozygous for the gene (Md/md) produce few female offspring; ...

Meiotic drive at the D(MD) locus and fertility in the mosquito, Aedes aegypti (L)

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Hastings, RJW, R. J.,  Genetica,  49:159-163. 1978.
The Distorter gene D in Aedes aegypti shows meiotic drive when associated with the male-determining M gene, causing sex ratio distortion in favour of males. The fertility of Distorter (MD/m s) and normal (M/m-) males has been compared by mating them to a series of females at ...

Resistance to meiotic drive at MD locus in an Indian wild population of Aedes aegypti

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Suguna, SGW, R. J.; Curtis, C. F.; Whitelaw, A.; Kazmi, S. J.,  Genetical Research,  29:123-132. 1977.
Females from an Indian wild population of Aedes aegypti were crossed to males carrying the sex ratio distorter factor MB which shows meiotic drive. Progenies from ¥1 males were tested for sex ratio distortion, i.e. the chromosomes from the wild females were screened for their ...

Experimental population-genetics of meiotic drive systems .1: Pseudo-Y chromosomal drive as a means of eliminating cage populations of Drosophila melanogaster

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Lyttle, TW,  Genetics,  86:413-445. 1977.
The experimental population genetics of Y-chromosome drive in Drosophila; melanogasier is approximated by studying the behavior of T(Y;S),SD lines.; These exhibit “pseudo-Y” drive through the effective coupling of the Y chromosome; to the second chromosome meiotic drive ...

Between family variation in sex-ratio in Trinidad (T-30) strain of Aedes-aegypti (L) indicating differences in sensitivity to meiotic drive gene MD

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Wood, RJ,  Genetica,  46:345-361. 1976.
Sex ratio in the Trinidad (T-30) strain of Aedes aegypti has remained constant at around 43%? during seventeen years of laboratory culture. The divergence from 50% is due to meiotic drive by the MD gene on the Y chromosome. The driving Y chromosome gives a much more distorted sex ...

Evidence for autosomal meiotic drive in the butterfly Danaus chrysippus L.

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Smith, DAS,  Heredity,  36:139-142. 1976.
Danaus chrysippus (Danaidae) in East Africa is highly polymorphic for colour, the genetic control of which resides at three loci. The B locus has two alleles, B giving a nutbrown ground colour and bb orange on both fore and hindwings. The C locus determines forewing pattern: ...

Cytogenetic analysis of meiotic drive in mosquito, Aedes aegypti

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Newton, MEW, R. J.; Southern, D. I.,  Genetica,  46:297-318. 1976.
Meiotic drive in Aedes aegypti (L.) is shown by a Giemsa C-banding technique to be associated with. preferential isochromatid breakage of the X chromosome during male meiosis. These breaks remain open at least until anaphase-I and, since the range of cells affected is ...

Meiotic drive for B-chromosomes in primary oocytes of Myrmeleotettix maculatus (Orthoptera-Acrididae)

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Hewitt, GM,  Chromosoma,  56:381-391. 1976.
Using a modified technique which allowed observation of chromosome orientation in the primary oocyte of grasshoppers at the onset of anaphase, it has been possible to establish that the B-chromosome is distributed preferentially on the egg side of the metaphase plate rather than ...

Population genetics of modifiers of meiotic drive 4: Evolution of sex-ratio distortion

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Thomson, GJF, M. W.,  Theoretical Population Biology,  8:202-211. 1975.
A model for the evolution of the sex-ratio meiotic drive system in Drosophila is proposed and analyzed. The model incorporates drive and altered fertility genetic modification The condition change in the sex-ratio of the modifying distortion overcome any relative of meiotic in ...

Sex-chromosome meiotic drive systems in Drosophila melanogaster .1: Abnormal spermatid development in males with a heterochromatin-deficient X-chromosome (sc4sc8)

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Peacock, WJM, G. L. G.; Goodchild, D. J.,  Genetics,  79:613-634. 1975.
The meiotic drive characteristics of the In(1)sc4Lsc8R/Y system have been examined by genetic analysis and by light and electron microscopy. sc4sc8/Y males show a direct correlation between nondisjunction frequency and meiotic drive. Temperature-shift experiments reveal that the ...

Sex-ration, meiotic drive, and group selectin in Drosophila pseudoobscura

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Policansky, D,  American Naturalist,  108:75-90. 1974.
Sex ratio (SR) is a widespread genetic condition of the X-chromosome in Drosophila species which causes males to produce progenies consisting almost entirely of females. Results of samples from natural populations of Drosophila pseudoobscura and results of some laboratory ...

Lâchers de mâles stériles de Glossina tachinoides West. dans un gîte naturel de faible densité Bas-Logone, Cameroun

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D. Cuisance and J. Itard,  Revue d’élevage et de médecine vétérinaire des pays tropicaux,  26:405-422. 1973.
Des mâles adultes de G. tachinoides, élevés à Maisons-Alfort et irradiés entre 7 600 et 10 650 rads à Saclay (France), ont été expédiés chaque semaine par avion à N'Djamena (Tchad) entre février et juin 1973, pour être, après marquage, lâchés en plusieurs points ...

Comportement de mâles stériles de Glossina tachinoides West. lâchés dans les conditions naturelles – environs de Fort-Lamy (Tchad). I. Transport, lâchers, rythme d’activité, action sur la population sauvage

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D. Cuisance and J. Itard,  Revue d'élevage et de médecine vétérinaire des pays tropicaux,  26:55-76. 1973.
Glossina tachinoides adult males, bred and irradiated with 15,500 rads in Maisons-Alfort (France) were dispatched by air-mail to Fort-Lamy (Chad) between February and May of 1972, in order to be released, after marking, in a natural area of Cameroon side of the Chari river. In ...

Multiple meiotic drive systems in Drosophila melanogaster male

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Miklos, GLGY, A. F.; Peacock, W. J.,  Genetics,  72:105-115. 1972.
The behaviour of two "meiotic drive" systems, Segregation-Distorter (SD) and the sex chromosome sc4sc8 has been examined in the same meiocyte. It has been found that the two systems interact in a specific way. When the distorting effects of SD and sc4sc8 are against each other, ...

The Sterile-Male Technique Against Tsetse Flies, Glossina Spp

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D. A. Dame and C. H. Schmidt,  16,  24-30. 1970.
Simpson (1958) discussed the relationship between the biological characteristics of the genus Glossina and the use of the sterile-male technique in the control of this vector of trypanosomiasis, as did Knipling in an informal report in 1963 on Practical Role of the Sterility ...

Meiotic drive in natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster 9: Suppressors of segregation distorter in wild populations

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Hartl, DL,  Canadian Journal of Genetics and Cytology,  12:594-600. 1970.
A population of Drosophila melanogaster in Madison, Wisconsin, has been screened for suppressors of segregation distorter (SD), an autosomal meiotic drive element found in the same population. Three kinds of suppressors were tested for: (1) Y-linked suppressors, none were found, ...

Meiotic drive and visible polarity in Drosophila spermatocytes

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Yanders, AFB, J. G.; Peacock, W. J.; Goodchild, D. J.,  Genetics,  59:245-253. 1968.
The model for meiotic drive presented by PEACOCK and ERICKSON (1965) demands that an intracellular differentiation exists at the time of the first meiotic division in spermatocytes. As a result of this differentiation, one of the spindle poles at anaphase I will lead to the ...

Genetic distortion of sex ratio in a mosquito Aedes aegypti

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Hickey, WAC, G. B.,  Genetics,  53:1177-1196. 1966.
CRAIG, HICKEY and VANDEHEY (1960) reported that a hereditary factor transmitted by males was responsible for high male ratios in A. aegypti. This phenomenon was designated as male-producing or MP. Males from high maleproducing families produced a high proportion of males in their ...

Meiotic drive in Drosophila involving chromosome breakage

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Erickson, J,  Genetics,  51:555-571. 1965.
In ordinary genetic systems the members of a pair of unlike alleles, or of a pair of unlike chromosomes, are recovered in equal numbers among the off spring, barring complications affecting viability. Contrary to this expectation, in a number of studies it has been found that one ...

Aanalysis of case of meiotic drive in Drosophila melanogaster

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Hanks, GD,  Genetics,  50:123-130. 1964.
IN the past ten years there has been a renewed interest in the abnormal recovery of chromosomes after meiosis; see for example DUNN (1953); NOVITSKI and SANDLER (1957) ; SANDLER and NOVITSKI ( 1957) ; LINDSLEY and SANDLER (1958); NOVITSKI and HANKS (1961); and MAGUIRE (1963). ...

Meiotic drive in natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster .7. Conditional segregation distortion – a possible nonallelic conversion

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Sandler, LH, Y.,  Genetics,  46:585-604. 1961.
Males, heterozygous for the Segregation-distorter (SD) allele (located in or near the centromeric heterochromatin of the right arm of chromosome 11) and a standard tester second chromosome, regularly produce a preponderance of functional SD-bearing sperm ( SANDLER, HIRAIZUMI and ...

Meiotic drive in natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster .8. A heritable aging effect on phenomenon of segregation distortion

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Sandler, LH, Y.,  Canadian Journal of Genetics and Cytology,  3:34-46. 1961.
Second chromosomes have been found in natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster that contain an abnormal centromere region which conditions a highly aberrant segregation ratio in heterozygous males (Sandler, Hiraizumi, and Sandler, 1959). In particular, when a chromosome ...

Analysis of irradiated Drosophila populations for meiotic drive

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Novitski, EH, G. D.,  Nature,  190:989-990. 1961.
The existence of chromosomes or alleles that are represented in the gametes of a heterozygote with a frequency greater than the expected 50 percent is now well established for a variety of species. The immediate population result of introducing such a chromosome or allele must ...

Meiotic drive in natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster .6: A preliminary report on presence of segregation-distortion in a Baja california population

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Mange, EJ,  American Naturalist,  95:87-96. 1961.
Meiotic drive is a term coined by Sandler and Novitski (1957) to describe; the situation whereby a heterozygote produces gametes containing an excess; of one allele, rather than the expected equality. As a consequence of such; aberrant segregations, gene frequencies within a ...

Meiotic drive in natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster .4: Instability at the Segregation Distorter locus

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Sandler, LH, Y.,  Genetics,  45:1269-1287. 1960.
In a collection of flies from a natural population of Drosophila melanogaster, several second chromosomes have been isolated that contain, in the centromere region .of chromosome 11, a locus (named segregation-distorter and symbolized SO) that conditions, in heterozygous males, a ...

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 2. Genetic variation at the Segregation Distorter locus

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Sandler, LH, Y.,  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,  45:1412-1422. 1959.
It has now been found that the proportion of heterozygous SD males resulting from any given cross which exhibits segregation-distortion, and the amount of distortion that any particular male shows (the k value), varies widely depending upon the precise source and history of the ...

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 ...

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. ...

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 ...