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Published July 2012 | Published + Supplemental Material
Journal Article Open

General principles of single-construct chromosomal gene drive

Abstract

Gene drive systems are genetic elements capable of spreading into a population even if they confer a fitness cost to their host. We consider a class of drive systems consisting of a chromosomally located, linked cluster of genes, the presence of which renders specific classes of offspring arising from specific parental crosses unviable. Under permissive conditions, a number of these elements are capable of distorting the offspring ratio in their favor. We use a population genetic framework to derive conditions under which these elements spread to fixation in a population or induce a population crash. Many of these systems can be engineered using combinations of toxin and antidote genes, analogous to Medea, which consists of a maternal toxin and zygotic antidote. The majority of toxin–antidote drive systems require a critical frequency to be exceeded before they spread into a population. Of particular interest, a Z-linked Medea construct with a recessive antidote is expected to induce an all-male population crash for release frequencies above 50%. We suggest molecular tools that may be used to build these systems, and discuss their relevance to the control of a variety of insect pest species, including mosquito vectors of diseases such as malaria and dengue fever.

Additional Information

© 2012 The Authors. © 2012 The Society for the Study of Evolution. Received April 21, 2011; Accepted December 21, 2011. Article first published online: 9 Mar. 2012. The authors would like to thank T. Chou and C. Ward for helpful discussions on model design. JMM was supported by grant number DP1 OD003878 to BAH from the National Institutes of Health and by a grant from the UK Medical Research Council.

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Published - Marshall2012p18984Evolution.pdf

Supplemental Material - EVO_1582_sm_suppmat.pdf

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