Harnessing Wolbachia cytoplasmic incompatibility alleles for confined gene drive: A modeling study.

ABSTRACT: Wolbachia are maternally-inherited bacteria, which can spread rapidly in populations by manipulating reproduction. cifA and cifB are genes found in Wolbachia phage that are responsible for cytoplasmic incompatibility, the most common type of Wolbachia reproductive interference. In this phenomenon, no viable offspring are produced when a male with both cifA and cifB (or just cifB in some systems) mates with a female lacking cifA. Utilizing this feature, we propose new types of toxin-antidote gene drives that can be constructed with only these two genes in an insect genome, instead of the whole Wolbachia bacteria. By using both mathematical and simulation models, we found that a drive containing cifA and cifB together creates a confined drive with a moderate to high introduction threshold. W

SUBMITTER: Li J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9894560 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature