A confinable home-and-rescue gene drive for population modification

• DOI: 10.7554/elife.65939
• Publication Date: 2021-03-05T13:01:23Z
• Authors: Nikolay P Kandul; Junru Liu; Jared B Bennett; John M Marshall; Omar S Akbari
• Keywords: Gene drive

Homing-based gene drives, engineered using CRISPR/Cas9, have been proposed to spread desirable genes throughout populations. However, invasion of such drives can be hindered by the accumulation resistant alleles. To limit this obstacle, we engineer a confinable population modification home-and-rescue (HomeR) drive in Drosophila targeting an essential gene. In our experiments, alleles that disrupt target function were recessive lethal and therefore disadvantaged. We demonstrate HomeR achieve increase frequency cage but fitness costs due Cas9 insertion efficacy. Finally, conduct mathematical modeling comparing contemporary architectures for over wide ranges costs, transmission rates, release regimens. could potentially adapted other species, as means safe, confinable, wild