Insecticide resistance poses a significant global challenge to public health and welfare. Together with Ankush Auradkar, John Marshall and Ethan Bier, we develop a self-eliminating allelic-drive system to revert insecticide resistance in Drosophila melanogaster. The drive is based on CRISPR-Cas9 technology and bias inheritance of the favored wild-type allele over the insecticide resistance variant of the voltage-gated sodium ion channel target locus.
Our study strongly supports self-eliminating allelic-drive strategies as a broadly applicable means to achieve population replacement of an undesired allele with a different naturally occurring preferred allele in diverse experimental, agricultural, and natural contexts.
Check it out: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-54210-4.
EurekAlet!: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1065941.