Modelling homing suppression gene drive in haplodiploid organisms
Gene drives have shown great promise for suppression of pest populations. These engineered alleles can function by a variety of mechanisms, but the most common is the CRISPR homing drive, which converts wild-type alleles to drive alleles in the germline of heterozygotes. Some potential target species are haplodiploid, in which males develop from unfertilized eggs and thus have only one copy of each chromosome. This prevents drive conversion, a substantial disadvantage compared to diploids where drive conversion can take place in both sexes. Here, we study homing suppression gene drives in haplodiploids and find that a drive targeting a female fertility gene could still be successful.
Liu, Y., & Champer, J. (2022). Modelling homing suppression gene drive in haplodiploid organisms. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 289(1972), 20220320.