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López Del Amo V, Leger BS, Cox KJ, Gill S, Bishop AL, Scanlon GD, Walker JA, Gantz VM, Choudhary A. Small-Molecule Control of Super-Mendelian Inheritance in Gene Drives. Cell Rep 2021; 31:107841. [PMID: 32610142 PMCID: PMC7587219 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.107841] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/12/2019] [Revised: 02/20/2020] [Accepted: 06/09/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Synthetic CRISPR-based gene-drive systems have tremendous potential in public health and agriculture, such as for fighting vector-borne diseases or suppressing crop pest populations. These elements can rapidly spread in a population by breaching the inheritance limit of 50% dictated by Mendel's law of gene segregation, making them a promising tool for population engineering. However, current technologies lack control over their propagation capacity, and there are important concerns about potential unchecked spreading. Here, we describe a gene-drive system in Drosophila that generates an analog inheritance output that can be tightly and conditionally controlled to between 50% and 100%. This technology uses a modified SpCas9 that responds to a synthetic, orally available small molecule, fine-tuning the inheritance probability. This system opens a new avenue to feasibility studies for spatial and temporal control of gene drives using small molecules.
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Affiliation(s)
- Víctor López Del Amo
- Section of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | - Brittany S Leger
- Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA
| | - Kurt J Cox
- Chemical Biology and Therapeutics Science, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Divisions of Renal Medicine and Engineering, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Shubhroz Gill
- Chemical Biology and Therapeutics Science, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
| | - Alena L Bishop
- Section of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | - Garrett D Scanlon
- Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA
| | - James A Walker
- Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Cancer Program, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
| | - Valentino M Gantz
- Section of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
| | - Amit Choudhary
- Chemical Biology and Therapeutics Science, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Divisions of Renal Medicine and Engineering, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
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