2021 journal article

Population genomics of invasive rodents on islands: Genetic consequences of colonization and prospects for localized synthetic gene drive

EVOLUTIONARY APPLICATIONS, 14(5), 1421–1435.

By: K. Oh *, A. Shiels *, L. Shiels*, D. Blondel n, K. Campbell *, J. Saah  n, A. Lloyd n , P. Thomas * ...

author keywords: Cas9; CRISPR; genetic biocontrol; genome editing; Mus musculus; synthetic biology
topics (OpenAlex): Evolution and Genetic Dynamics; Animal Ecology and Behavior Studies; Genetic Mapping and Diversity in Plants and Animals
TL;DR: Results from pooled whole‐genome sequencing of invasive mouse populations on four islands along with paired putative source populations are used to test genetic predictions of island colonization and characterize locally fixed Cas9 genomic targets. (via Semantic Scholar)
UN Sustainable Development Goals Color Wheel
UN Sustainable Development Goal Categories
14. Life Below Water (OpenAlex)
Source: Web Of Science
Added: March 29, 2021

Introduced rodent populations pose significant threats worldwide, with particularly severe impacts on islands. Advancements in genome editing have motivated interest in synthetic gene drives that could potentially provide efficient and localized suppression of invasive rodent populations. Application of such technologies will require rigorous population genomic surveys to evaluate population connectivity, taxonomic identification, and to inform design of gene drive localization mechanisms. One proposed approach leverages the predicted shifts in genetic variation that accompany island colonization, wherein founder effects, genetic drift, and island-specific selection are expected to result in locally fixed alleles (LFA) that are variable in neighboring nontarget populations. Engineering of guide RNAs that target LFA may thus yield gene drives that spread within invasive island populations, but would have limited impacts on nontarget populations in the event of an escape. Here we used pooled whole-genome sequencing of invasive mouse (