2022 journal article

Leveraging a natural murine meiotic drive to suppress invasive populations

PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 119(46).

By: L. Gierus *, A. Birand *, M. Bunting *, G. Godahewa*, S. Piltz *, K. Oh *, A. Piaggio *, D. Threadgill * ...

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. (via Semantic Scholar)
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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 (tCRISPR) 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 tCRISPR can eradicate island populations under a range of realistic field-based parameter values. We also engineer transgenic tCRISPR 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.