When coupled with the use
of a gene drive naturally occurring in mice, this technique could ensure that all non-native mice on an infested island can be reached to affect an all - male - population unable to reproduce.
Not exact matches
Gene drives already occur
naturally in nearly every species we know
of, Esvelt says, and researchers have been dreaming up ways to take advantage
of the phenomenon for nearly a century.
«We'd anticipate far fewer ecological consequences from
gene -
driving one
of these
naturally occurring proteins into a population
of snails, because they'd remain natural in pretty much every other way — just instead
of being more susceptible to Schistosoma, they'd be more resistant.»
The research goal is to use a
naturally - occurring (t - complex) and / or CRISPR «
gene drive» in mice to facilitate a bias
of subsequent rodent generations to all be a single sex.
Alterations accomplished using CRISPR, which enables scientists to edit a cell's DNA with unprecedented precision, are different in one crucial respect: The process can result in «
gene drive,» a
naturally occurring feature
of some
genes that enables them to spread through a population over generations, even if they do not help survival (and thus reproduction).