CRISPR gene drive (mutagenic chain reaction)
Impulso génico con CRISPR (gene drive mutagénico)
- Date
- 2015 · confidence high
- Place
- University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States
- Credited to
- Valentino Gantz and Ethan Bier; Austin Burt (concept, 2003)
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Gantz and Bier used CRISPR-Cas9 so that an allele copies itself onto the homologous chromosome and is inherited by almost 100% of offspring. Applied to Anopheles mosquitoes, the system can spread traits through a wild population and is a route to suppressing malaria.
The concept of nuclease-based selfish genetic elements is Burt's (Imperial College, 2003) and Esvelt et al. (2014) formulated the CRISPR framework; Gantz and Bier (Science, March 2015, in Drosophila) were first to demonstrate it, and James's group (Irvine) and Hammond et al. (Imperial, 2016) took it to Anopheles. As far as is recorded at the time of writing, no gene drive has been released in the field.
What it led to
- gene drives against Anopheles gambiae (Target Malaria, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Ghana)
- moratoria and governance frameworks (CBD, 2016–2018)
- proposals for invasive rodent and agricultural pest control