A synthetic maternal-effect selfish genetic element drives population replacement in Drosophila.
One proposed strategy for controlling the transmission of insect-borne pathogens uses a drive mechanism to ensure the rapid spread of transgenes conferring disease refractoriness throughout wild populations. Here, we report the creation of maternal-effect selfish genetic elements inDrosophilathat drive population replacement and are resistant to recombination-mediated dissociation of drive and disease refractoriness functions. These selfish elements use microRNA-mediated silencing of a maternally expressed gene essential for embryogenesis, which is coupled with early zygotic expression of a rescuing transgene.
Chen
Chun-Hong
CH
Division of Biology, Mail Code 156-29, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
Huang
Haixia
H
Ward
Catherine M
CM
Su
Jessica T
JT
Schaeffer
Lorian V
LV
Guo
Ming
M
Hay
Bruce A
BA
D048868:Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D000943:Antigens, Differentiation / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004330:Drosophila / Q000196:embryology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D047108:Embryonic Development; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D017344:Genes, Insect; D005818:Genetic Engineering; D006579:Heterozygote; D006720:Homozygote; D008297:Male; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D034622:RNA Interference; D011971:Receptors, Immunologic / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D019076:Transgenes; D015053:Zygote / Q000502:physiology
D048868:Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing; D000943:Antigens, Differentiation; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D035683:MicroRNAs; C499312:Myd88 protein, Drosophila; D011971:Receptors, Immunologic