Synergizing two forms of vector control: Insecticides and gene drive

Insecticide-based control of mosquitoes has driven the recent huge gains in malaria control, yet insecticide resistance necessitates both new control approaches and ways to combine approaches that drastically reduce the overall likelihood of resistance. Recent research has demonstrated a new form of genetic control, called gene drive, that can spread a genetic element rapidly in a population and cause its suppression. The gene drive, based on a modified CRISPR element, effectively acts as a very specific form of genomic parasite designed to recognise and disrupt a target sequence in any essential mosquito gene, copying itself in the process. It has been shown that gene drives are also subject to resistance, in the form of sequence variation at the target site. Both forms of control show similarities in the dynamics of selection and spread of resistance yet show completely independent modes of action. After initial suppression, insecticide programs can leave a residual resistant population that shows drastically reduced genomic variation (‘selective sweeps’) making it more susceptible to subsequent control by gene drive. Conversely, it should be possible to engineer gene drives in a way that, after causing long term suppression, any residual population is newly susceptible to insecticide. Therefore, this Springboard will show proof of principle and feasibility for the wider approach of synergizing insecticides and gene drive by achieving the objectives.

Project details

Genetics and Genomics
Insecticide Resistance
Vector Control

Jun 2021 — Jan 2024

$137,450

United Kingdom