Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: In the PNAS article “Cleave and Rescue, a novel selfish genetic element and general strategy for gene drive,” Oberhofer et al. (1) describe an exciting new mechanism for enabling a transgenic sequence to increase in frequency within a sexually reproducing population, even if the transgenic sequence causes individuals bearing it to have somewhat lower fitness than those without it. The authors liken the mechanism to the “gene addiction” that can maintain a useless plasmid in a bacterium. The work of Oberhofer et al. (1) adds substantially to a growing field within genetic engineering, often termed gene drive research, in which selfish genetic elements overcome the rules of Mendelian inheritance and push transgenes into a population. While no engineered gene drives have been released into wild populations, that is the ultimate goal, and both the technical and cultural roads toward that goal have been tortuous at times.
Gene drive projects are categorized based on having one of two aims. The first is to physically link a desirable gene to a gene drive mechanism and engineer both into a viable strain of the target organism. If individuals of the strain are released into a sexually reproducing field population of that species, the DNA sequence of the drive mechanism is predicted to increase in frequency in the population and the linked, desirable gene should “hitchhike” along with it. If the population is a mosquito that transmits dengue virus, the desirable gene could be one that codes for an RNA interference molecule targeted to prevent the virus from replicating in the mosquito—thus interfering with its transmission to a person whom the mosquito subsequently bites.
Projects with the second aim are designed to suppress or eliminate a pest species, be it a mosquito, rat, roach, or crop pest. Here, the gene drive mechanism itself or …
[↵][1]1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: fred_gould{at}ncsu.edu.
[1]: #xref-corresp-1-1
Authors: Fred Gould, Sumit Dhole, Alun L. Lloyd
Institution: North Carolina State University
Language: English
Subfield: Insect Science
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2922247663