2022 journal article
Leveraging a natural murine meiotic drive to suppress invasive populations
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
MeSH headings : Mice; Female; Animals; Biodiversity; Gene Drive Technology; Rodentia; Genetics, Population; Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats
TL;DR:
Modelling of realistic parameter values indicates that tCRISPR can eradicate an island population of 200,000 mice while the unmodified t haplotype fails under the same conditions, and is the first example of a feasible gene drive system for invasive alien rodent population control.
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open access via zenodo.org (repository)
UN Sustainable Development Goal Categories
3. Good Health and Well-being
(Web of Science)
15. Life on Land
(OpenAlex)
Source: ORCID
Added: November 9, 2022
Invasive rodents are a major cause of environmental damage and biodiversity loss, particularly on islands. Unlike insects, genetic biocontrol strategies including population-suppressing gene drives with biased inheritance have not been developed in mice. Here, we demonstrate a gene drive strategy ( t CRISPR ) that leverages super-Mendelian transmission of the t haplotype to spread inactivating mutations in a haplosufficient female fertility gene ( Prl ). Using spatially explicit individual-based in silico modeling, we show that t CRISPR can eradicate island populations under a range of realistic field-based parameter values. We also engineer transgenic t CRISPR mice that, crucially, exhibit biased transmission of the modified t haplotype and Prl mutations at levels our modeling predicts would be sufficient for eradication. This is an example of a feasible gene drive system for invasive alien rodent population control.