[Editor’s Note: Excerpts are from a presentation by James Collins, an evolutionary ecologist from the Arizona State University in Tempe, at the annual AAAS meeting, which publishes Science. He showed that gene drive technology could protect people in Africa by genetically transforming the entire mosquito population, but that unintended consequences may arise as a result.]
Q: Should we be looking at how the environment might be affected by gene drives?
Absolutely, this is a manipulation of nature. We don’t know how it would affect population dynamics and ecosystems.
Q: What is the worst-case scenario of releasing these organisms?
Eliminating an organism or reducing its numbers greatly. By eliminating one plant species, you cause the proliferation of others, and this leads to a series of changes in the ecosystem. We need to understand the system well enough so that we can take ethical concerns into account as we make decisions.
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Q: If the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of genetically modified mosquitoes to control the Zika virus, why so cautious about using gene drives?
The advantage of these other technologies is that they are effective only as long as you’re releasing modified male mosquitoes. When you stop the manipulation, the population would bounce back to normal levels. You have a control over the system that is yet to be demonstrated for gene drives where once you alter the genes in these populations, they just keep changing.
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: New gene drive technology could wipe out malaria, but is it safe?
