CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.
CSIRO Synthetic Biology Future Science Platform, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.
Proc Biol Sci. 2019 Sep 25;286(1911):20191515. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2019.1515.
Plant species, populations and communities are under threat from climate change, invasive pathogens, weeds and habitat fragmentation. Despite considerable research effort invested in genome engineering for crop improvement, the development of genetic tools for the management of wild plant populations has rarely been given detailed consideration. Gene drive systems that allow direct genetic management of plant populations via the spread of fitness-altering genetic modifications could be of great utility. However, despite the rapid development of synthetic tools and their enormous promise, little explicit consideration has been given to their application in plants and, to date, they remain untested. This article considers the potential utility of gene drives for the management of wild plant populations, and examines the factors that might influence the design, spread and efficacy of synthetic drives. To gain insight into optimal ways to design and deploy synthetic drive systems, we investigate the diversity of mechanisms underlying natural gene drives and their dynamics within plant populations and species. We also review potential approaches for engineering gene drives and discuss their potential application to plant genomes. We highlight the importance of considering the impact of plant life-history and genetic architecture on the dynamics of drive, investigate the potential for different types of resistance evolution, and touch on the ethical, regulatory and social challenges ahead.
植物物种、种群和群落受到气候变化、入侵性病原体、杂草和生境破碎化的威胁。尽管在作物改良的基因组工程方面投入了大量研究，但很少详细考虑用于管理野生植物种群的遗传工具的开发。通过传播改变适应性的遗传修饰物来直接进行植物种群遗传管理的基因驱动系统可能非常有用。然而，尽管合成工具发展迅速，前景广阔，但很少有明确的考虑将其应用于植物，迄今为止，它们仍未经过测试。本文考虑了基因驱动在野生植物种群管理中的潜在用途，并研究了可能影响合成驱动的设计、传播和效果的因素。为了深入了解设计和部署合成驱动系统的最佳方法，我们研究了自然基因驱动背后的机制多样性及其在植物种群和物种中的动态。我们还回顾了工程基因驱动的潜在方法，并讨论了它们在植物基因组中的潜在应用。我们强调了考虑植物生活史和遗传结构对驱动动态的影响的重要性，研究了不同类型的抗性进化的可能性，并触及了未来的伦理、监管和社会挑战。
