According to recent research from North Carolina State University, a “homing gene drive system” based on CRISPR/Cas9 has been developed to suppress populations of Drosophila suzukii vinegar flies, also known as “spotted-wing Drosophila,” which cause significant damage to soft-skinned fruit in North America, Europe, and parts of South America.
The NC State researchers created dual CRISPR gene drive systems that targeted a specific gene in D. suzukii called doublesex, which is crucial for sexual development in the flies. CRISPR, which stands for “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats,” and Cas9, an enzyme that functions like molecular scissors to cut DNA, make up the CRISPR system. These systems are derived from bacterial immune systems that recognize and destroy viruses and other invaders and are being developed as solutions to problems in human, plant, and animal health, among other applications.
Targeting the doublesex gene resulted in female sterility in numerous experiments, as females were unable to lay eggs, according to Max Scott, an NC State entomologist who is the corresponding author of a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that describes the research.
“This is the first so-called homing gene drive in an agricultural pest that potentially could be used for suppression,” Scott said.
Gene drives can selectively choose, alter, or delete specific traits or characteristics and “drive” those changes through future generations, resulting in a sometimes greater than 50% chance of passing those changes to offspring.
2023-06-12 16:00:02
Source from phys.org