Keywords: Other invertebrates

Modeling the efficacy of CRISPR gene drive for snail immunity on schistosomiasis control

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R. E. Grewelle, J. Perez-Saez, J. Tycko, E. K. O. Namigai, C. G. Rickards and G. A. De Leo,  PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases,  16:e0010894. 2022.
CRISPR gene drives could revolutionize the control of infectious diseases by accelerating the spread of engineered traits that limit parasite transmission in wild populations. Gene drive technology in mollusks has received little attention despite the role of freshwater snails as ...

Modeling the efficacy of CRISPR gene drive for schistosomiasis control

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R. E. Grewelle, J. Perez-Saez, J. Tycko, E. K. O. Namigai, C. G. Rickards and G. A. De Leo,  bioRxiv,  2021.10.29.466423. 2021.
CRISPR gene drives could revolutionize the control of infectious diseases by accelerating the spread of engineered traits that limit parasite transmission in wild populations. While much effort has been spent developing gene drives in mosquitoes, gene drive technology in molluscs ...

A Maternal-Effect Toxin Affects Epithelial Differentiation and Tissue Mechanics in Caenorhabditis elegans

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C. Lehmann and C. Pohl,  Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology,  9. 2021.
Selfish genetic elements that act as post-segregation distorters cause lethality in non-carrier individuals after fertilization. Two post-segregation distorters have been previously identified in Caenorhabditis elegans, the peel-1/zeel-1 and the sup-35/pha-1 elements. These ...

Selfing is the safest sex for Caenorhabditis tropicalis

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L. M. Noble, J. Yuen, L. Stevens, N. D. Moya, R. Persaud, M. Moscatelli, J. L. Jackson, G. Zhang, R. Chitrakar, L. R. Baugh, C. Braendle, E. C. Andersen, H. S. Seidel and M. V. Rockman,  eLife,  10:e62587. 2021.
We generated a chromosomal-scale genome for C. tropicalis and surveyed global diversity. Population structure is very strong, and islands of extreme divergence punctuate a genomic background that is highly homogeneous around the globe. Outbreeding depression in the laboratory is ...

Ubiquitous Selfish Toxin-Antidote Elements in Caenorhabditis Species

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E. Ben-David, P. Pliota, S. A. Widen, A. Koreshova, T. Lemus-Vergara, P. Verpukhovskiy, S. Mandali, C. Braendle, A. Burga and L. Kruglyak,  Current Biology,  2021.
Here, we report the discovery of maternal-effect TAs in both C. tropicalis and C. briggsae, two distant relatives of C. elegans. In C. tropicalis, multiple TAs combine to cause a striking degree of intraspecific incompatibility: five elements reduce the fitness of >70% of the ...

Ubiquitous selfish toxin-antidote elements in Caenorhabditis species

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E. Ben-David, P. Pliota, S. A. Widen, A. Koreshova, T. Lemus-Vergara, P. Verpukhovskiy, S. Mandali, C. Braendle, A. Burga and L. Kruglyak,  bioRxiv,  2020.08.06.240564. 2020.
We discovered five maternal-effect Toxin/Antidotes (TAs) in the nematode Caenorhabditis tropicalis and one in C. briggsae. Unlike previously reported TAs, five of these novel toxins do not kill embryos but instead cause larval arrest or developmental delay. Our results show ...

Selfing is the safest sex for Caenorhabditis tropicalis

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L. M. Noble, J. Yuen, L. Stevens, N. Moya, R. Persaud, M. Moscatelli, J. Jackson, C. Braendle, E. C. Andersen, H. S. Seidel and M. V. Rockman,  bioRxiv,  2020.08.07.242032. 2020.
Frequent selfing in Caenorhabditis. tropicalis may be a strategy to avoid gene drive-mediated outbreeding depression. Mating systems have profound effects on genetic diversity and compatibility. Caenorhabditis tropicalis is the least genetically diverse among 3 species of ...

Public health concerns over gene-drive mosquitoes: will future use of gene-drive snails for schistosomiasis control gain increased level of community acceptance?

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D. O. Famakinde,  Pathogens and Global Health,  2020.
With the advent of CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat)-based gene drive, present genetic research in schistosomiasis vector control envisages the breeding and release of transgenic schistosome-resistant (TSR) snail vectors to curb the spread of the ...

Gene drives for schistosomiasis transmission control

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T. Maier, N. J. Wheeler, E. K. O. Namigai, J. Tycko, R. E. Grewelle, Y. Woldeamanuel, K. Klohe, J. Perez-Saez, S. H. Sokolow, G. A. De Leo, T. P. Yoshino, M. Zamanian and J. Reinhard-Rupp,  PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases,  13:e0007833. 2019.
Schistosomiasis is one of the most important and widespread neglected tropical diseases (NTD), with over 200 million people infected in more than 70 countries; the disease has nearly 800 million people at risk in endemic areas. Although mass drug administration is a ...

To reduce the global burden of human schistosomiasis, use ‘old fashioned’ snail control

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Sokolow, SHW, Chelsea L.; Jones, Isabel J.; Lafferty, Kevin D.; Kuris, Armand; Hsieh, Michael H.; De Leo, Giulio A.,  Trends in Parasitology,  34:23-40. 2018.
Control strategies to reduce human schistosomiasis have evolved from ‘snail picking’ campaigns, a century ago, to modern wide-scale human treatment campaigns, or preventive chemotherapy. Unfortunately, despite the rise in preventive chemotherapy campaigns, just as many people ...

A maternal-effect selfish genetic element in Caenorhabditis elegans

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E. Ben-David, A. Burga and L. Kruglyak,  Science,  356:1051. 2017.
We discovered a selfish element causing embryonic lethality in crosses between wild strains of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.

Poisons, antidotes, and selfish genes

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N. Phadnis,  Science,  356:1013. 2017.
On page1051 of this issue, BenDavid et al . (3) chase down a serendipitous observation of an anomaly in genetic crosses to unmask a toxin-antidote type of selfish system in worms.