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E-book Gene Drives at Tipping Points : Precautionary Technology Assessment and Governance of New Approaches to Genetically Modify Animal and Plant Populations

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Penilaian

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In recent years, innovation in genetic engineering brought forth a number of tech-nologies to manipulate the fate of entire wild type populations. These technologiesrely on the dissemination of synthetic genetic elements within a population of sex-ually reproducing species via the germline and are identified as Self-PropagatingArtificial Genetic Elements (SPAGE). Some secure their dissemination passively sothat only offspring carrying the SPAGE will survive or be fertile. Others overcomethe limitations of the Mendelian inheritance pattern by a distortion of allelic seg-regation or a fragmentation of chromosomes, resulting in e.g. an altered sex ratio.Genetic elements may also promote their preferred inheritance by a molecular mech-anism. If a SPAGE overcomes the Mendelian pattern of inheritance and is therebyenabled to spread and distribute a novel trait throughout a population – even defyingnatural selection – it is called a gene drive. If organisms have a comparably shortgeneration time, as e.g. insects, then already after a few months, a large part of thepopulation could express a new property transmitted by the gene drive. In particular,very invasive gene drives may be able to impose properties on entire populations thatotherwise could not spread.SPAGEs are discussed for many potential applications and partially alreadydesigned as a kind of self-propagating delete-function. If for example the prop-erty mediated by the synthetic genetic element consists in male or female offspringbecoming infertile, an entire population may disappear. Currently, multiple applications are under consideration. Especially malaria- ordengue-carryingmosquitoesarepotentialtargets.Inagriculture,weedsandcroppestscould be eradicated or endangered species could be immunized against pathogensusing a GD. Two potential applications of gene drives even serve issues of natureconservation, namely the eradication of invasive animal or plant species (Webberet al.2015) and the conservation of endangered species (Esvelt et al.2014; EuropeanCommission and Scientific Advice Mechanism2017; Ledford2015). Although dis-cussed in the 2016 NASEM report on gene drives (National Academies of Sciences2016), the idea to recover the sensitivity of pest species to pesticides or to removetransgenic resistances from feral populations have not been pursued in the scientificliterature of the following years. So far, gene drives have not yet been released, butthe discussion is gaining momentum (Courtier-Orgogozo et al.2017; Emerson et al.2017; Hochkirch et al.2017). In particular, the development of new gene drive vari-ants is closely linked to the upswing that genome editing methods have taken by therecent use of CRISPR-Cas gene scissors (Gantz et al.2015; Gantz and Bier2015).Compared to previous releases of GMOs, SPAGE and especially gene drivescollide with basic principles of precaution due to their targeted property to spread inwild populations and thus causing extreme exposure. Applications of this new qualityrepresent a shift of paradigm in the handling of GMOs. At least for the EuropeanCommunity, the current regulation of the release of GMOs assumes that for specificperiods of time a certain amount of GMOs will be released in a particular region.1However, now a type of genetic technology arises whose innermost principle lies inexceeding these limits: the transformation or even eradication of wild populations.So far, it is unclear whether particular SPAGE applications, once released, willbe retrievable or manageable at all. Due to their intended ability to spread, a lossof control is highly probable, not least in comparison to hitherto existing GMOs. Ingeneral, SPAGEs must be characterized as a technology with a high depth of inter-vention into the genetic configuration of organisms and ecological systems, whichresults in a high technological power (much higher compared to a manipulation atthe phenotype level and with high potential impacts with regard to the functionali-ties of the modified organisms) and a high range of exposure (spread in space andtime because of self-reproduction, mobility and self-dispersal). Due to the increasedability to self-propagate and spread through populations, a particularly high expo-sure of these altered organisms to ecosystems must be expected. This dispersionand exposure must in turn also be appraised as a high depth of intervention intothe targeted ecosystems, which additionally may be regarded as a contamination ofthese systems. The increased technological power and exposure produced by thesetechnologies results in proportionally increasing lack of knowledge about possibleconsequences, reaching from enormous scientific uncertainties to vast ignorance.

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Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

616.98 BRE g

Penerbit

Switzerland : Springer Nature., 2020

Deskripsi Fisik

264 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9783030389345

Klasifikasi

616.98

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

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Subjek

Environmental Medicine

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

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Versi lain/terkait

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