Andrew Hammond, Paola Pollegioni, Tania Persampieri
Ace North, Roxana Minuz, Alessandro Trusso, Alessandro Bucci, Kyros Kyrou, Ioanna Morianou, Alekos Simoni, Tony Nolan, Ruth Müller, Andrea Crisanti
2021 · Nature Communications
Abstract CRISPR-based gene-drives targeting the gene doublesex in the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae effectively suppressed the reproductive capability of mosquito populations reared in small laboratory cages. To bridge the gap between laboratory and the field, this gene-drive technology must be challenged with vector ecology. Here we report the suppressive activity of the gene-drive in age-structured An. gambiae populations in large indoor cages that permit complex feeding and reproductive behaviours. The gene-drive element spreads rapidly through the populations, fully supresses the population within one year and without selecting for resistance to the gene drive. Approximate Bayesian computation allowed retrospective inference of life-history parameters from the large cages and a more accurate prediction of gene-drive behaviour under more ecologically-relevant settings. Generating data to bridge laboratory and field studies for invasive technologies is challenging. Our study represents a paradigm for the stepwise and sound development of vector control tools based on gene-drive.
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To fix issues like this we need more work on gene drive. Targeting doublesex gene in insects has a very promising results in different species from mosquitos https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-24790-6 to fruit-flies https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2301525120. So it can be used to eliminate the most harmful pest species.
This is not scientifically well supported, on a account of "maybe we can just kill them all"[1,2] is a question surrounding whether we deploy the gene-drive bioweapon against them[3]. The counter-argument leans heavily on the vague feeling that we shouldn't do this, rather then much concrete-evidence this would really be a problem. And the communities blighted by mosquito-born pathogens (which covers a huge chunk of human civilization on the planet) I suspect are only restrained on account of the lack of money and technology to implement it themselves. IMO the question is going to be answered for us at some point: a sufficiently virulent, mosquito born disease will emerge…
(or just be Zika, with mosquito carriers moving into 1st world areas on the back of climate change) and the answer will rapidly become yes. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK585176/ [2] https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35408835 [3] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-24790-6
>A gene drive has been deployed in the Keys The Oxitec mosquitoes aren't gene-drive, but genetically engineered to be sterile. (This is different from a gene drive, for a true gene drive see https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-24790-6 )
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