Behavior of homing endonuclease gene drives targeting genes required for viability or female fertility with multiplexed guide RNAs.

ABSTRACT: A gene drive method of particular interest for population suppression utilizes homing endonuclease genes (HEGs), wherein a site-specific, nuclease-encoding cassette is copied, in the germline, into a target gene whose loss of function results in loss of viability or fertility in homozygous, but not heterozygous, progeny. Earlier work in Drosophila and mosquitoes utilized HEGs consisting of Cas9 and a single guide RNA (gRNA) that together target a specific gene for cleavage. Homing was observed, but resistant alleles immune to cleavage, while retaining wild-type gene function, were also created through nonhomologous end joining. Such alleles prevent drive and population suppression. Targeting a gene for cleavage at multiple positions has been suggested as a strategy to prevent the ap

SUBMITTER: Oberhofer G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6176634 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature