Daisy-chain gene drives for the alteration of local populations.

ABSTRACT: If they are able to spread in wild populations, CRISPR-based gene-drive elements would provide new ways to address ecological problems by altering the traits of wild organisms, but the potential for uncontrolled spread tremendously complicates ethical development and use. Here, we detail a self-exhausting form of CRISPR-based drive system comprising genetic elements arranged in a daisy chain such that each drives the next. "Daisy-drive" systems can locally duplicate any effect achievable by using an equivalent self-propagating drive system, but their capacity to spread is limited by the successive loss of nondriving elements from one end of the chain. Releasing daisy-drive organisms constituting a small fraction of the local wild population can drive a useful genetic element nearly to loca

SUBMITTER: Noble C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6486765 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature