Page 38 - Breeding Edge ebook

Babies with Congenital Zika Virus Infection have smaller head sizes and other abnormalities. Source: Centers for Disease Control

Scientists working at the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute are using CRISPR gene editing
techniques as a way to spread infertility in rats and mice – similar to the technique that already works for
mosquito control – so that an entire population could be eliminated within a few generations.

The gene drive has selling points, and the attraction is clear if the goal is pest control. That is, a gene
drive is toxin-free, eliminates a producer’s costs and cuts down on the environmental and health risks of
using pesticides. What’s more, it avoids collateral damage: unnecessary harm to insects, bacteria, fungi,

rodents and other critters who are beneficial or harmless.

“The promise of a gene drive, from a technical point of view, is that you can make a very small change

at the genome level and release a single mosquito, a single mouse . . . and have a very large change
across a whole population,” said Jim Thomas, co-executive director of ETC Group, a California based

ecological policy consultant, speaking at a UC-Davis conference on gene-editing.

“Here we have an exceedingly powerful technology, and we have to be exceedingly careful,” he
said.

One solution: Scientists at the University of California,
Riverside, have already installed a gene drive in the drosophila
that would potentially wipe out the insect over time. Its use
would require regulatory approval. Siccing a gene drive on the
spotted-wing drosophila, for example, holds the potential for
greatly reducing billions of dollars annually in damage that pest
unleashes on cherries, berries and other stone fruits in the West
Coast region, in Europe and elsewhere. This Asian native fruit
fly lays its eggs in ripening fruit – instead of in rotting fruit, as
other fruit flies do – making the fruit unmarketable.

Spotted wing drosophila eating a
strawberry. Source: Clemson University

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