Resistance to natural and synthetic gene drive systems

Tom A R Price; Nikolai Windbichler; Robert L Unckless; Andreas Sutter; Jan-Niklas Runge; Perran A Ross; Andrew Pomiankowski; Nicole L Nuckolls; Catherine Montchamp-Moreau; Nicole Mideo; Oliver Y Martin; Andri Manser; Mathieu Legros; Amanda M Larracuente; Luke Holman; John Godwin; Neil Gemmell; Cécile Courret; Anna Buchman; Luke G Barrett; Anna K Lindholm

doi:10.1111/jeb.13693

Resistance to natural and synthetic gene drive systems

J Evol Biol. 2020 Oct;33(10):1345-1360. doi: 10.1111/jeb.13693. Epub 2020 Sep 24.

Authors

Tom A R Price¹, Nikolai Windbichler², Robert L Unckless³, Andreas Sutter⁴, Jan-Niklas Runge⁵, Perran A Ross⁶, Andrew Pomiankowski⁷, Nicole L Nuckolls⁸, Catherine Montchamp-Moreau⁹, Nicole Mideo¹⁰, Oliver Y Martin¹¹, Andri Manser¹, Mathieu Legros^{12

13}, Amanda M Larracuente¹⁴, Luke Holman¹⁵, John Godwin¹⁶, Neil Gemmell¹⁷, Cécile Courret^{9

13}, Anna Buchman^{18

19}, Luke G Barrett¹², Anna K Lindholm⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.
² Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, London, UK.
³ Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA.
⁴ School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
⁵ Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
⁶ Bio21 and the School of Biosciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
⁷ Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, London, UK.
⁸ Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Kansas City, MO, USA.
⁹ UMR Evolution Génome Comportement et Ecologie, Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, IRD, Gif sur Yvette, France.
¹⁰ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
¹¹ Department of Biology (D-BIOL) & Institute of Integrative Biology (IBZ), ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
¹² CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
¹³ CSIRO Synthetic Biology Future Science Platform, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
¹⁴ Department of Biology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA.
¹⁵ School of Biosciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
¹⁶ Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA.
¹⁷ Department of Anatomy, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
¹⁸ University of California, La Jolla, CA, USA.
¹⁹ Verily Life Sciences, South San Francisco, CA, USA.

Abstract

Scientists are rapidly developing synthetic gene drive elements intended for release into natural populations. These are intended to control or eradicate disease vectors and pests, or to spread useful traits through wild populations for disease control or conservation purposes. However, a crucial problem for gene drives is the evolution of resistance against them, preventing their spread. Understanding the mechanisms by which populations might evolve resistance is essential for engineering effective gene drive systems. This review summarizes our current knowledge of drive resistance in both natural and synthetic gene drives. We explore how insights from naturally occurring and synthetic drive systems can be integrated to improve the design of gene drives, better predict the outcome of releases and understand genomic conflict in general.

Keywords: Wolbachia; CRISPR-Cas9; fitness costs; meiotic drive; population suppression; selfish genetic elements; sex ratio distorter; transposable element.

Resistance to natural and synthetic gene drive systems

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