Mitchell Heidi J, Bartsch Detlef
Office of the Gene Technology Regulator, Australian Government Department of Health, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety, Bundesamt für Verbraucherschutz und Lebensmittelsicherheit, Berlin, Germany.
Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2020 Jan 21;7:454. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2019.00454. eCollection 2019.
Invasive species can cause significant harm to the environment, agriculture, and human health, but there are often very limited tools available to control their populations. Gene drives (GD) have been proposed as a new tool which could be used to control or eliminate such species. Here, GD describes a variety of molecular biology applications which all enable the introduction of genetic elements at a higher than expected frequency. These elements can change the genotypes in target populations rapidly with consequences either for (intrinsic) fitness or host-parasite interaction, or both. Beneficial applications are foreseen for human and animal health, agriculture, or nature conservation. This rapidly developing technology is likely to have major impacts in the fight against various diseases, pests, and invasive species. The majority of GD applications involve genetic engineering and novel traits. Therefore, applicants and GMO regulators need to interact to achieve the benefits in innovation while cautiously avoiding unacceptable risks. The release into the environment may include transboundary movement and replacement of target populations, with potential impact on human/animal health and the environment. This article summarizes knowledge-based discussions to identify information gaps and analyzes scenarios for responsible introduction of GD organisms into the environment. It aims to connect the latest scientific developments with regulatory approaches and decision-making.
入侵物种会对环境、农业和人类健康造成重大危害，但控制其种群数量的可用工具往往非常有限。基因驱动（GD）已被提议作为一种可用于控制或消灭此类物种的新工具。在此，基因驱动描述了多种分子生物学应用，这些应用都能以高于预期的频率引入遗传元件。这些元件可迅速改变目标种群的基因型，并对（内在）适应性或宿主 - 寄生虫相互作用产生影响，或两者皆有。预计基因驱动在人类和动物健康、农业或自然保护方面会有有益应用。这项快速发展的技术可能会在对抗各种疾病、害虫和入侵物种的斗争中产生重大影响。大多数基因驱动应用涉及基因工程和新特性。因此，申请者和转基因生物监管机构需要相互协作，在谨慎避免不可接受风险的同时实现创新带来的益处。向环境中释放可能包括跨界移动和目标种群的替换，这对人类/动物健康和环境具有潜在影响。本文总结了基于知识的讨论，以识别信息空白，并分析将基因驱动生物负责任地引入环境的各种情形。其目的是将最新的科学发展与监管方法及决策联系起来。
