AbstractGene drive technology promises to deliver on some of the global challenges humanity faces today in health care, agriculture, and conservation. However, there is a limited understanding of the consequences of releasing self-perpetuating transgenic organisms into wild populations under complex ecological conditions. In this study, we analyze the impact of three such complexities-mate choice, mating systems, and spatial mating network-on the population dynamics for two distinct classes of modification gene drive systems. All three factors had a high impact on the modeling outcome. First, we demonstrate that distortion-based gene drives appear to be more robust against mate choice than viability-based gene drives. Second, we find that gene drive spread is much faster for higher degrees of polygamy. Including a fitness cost, the drive is fastest for intermediate levels of polygamy. Finally, the spread of a gene drive is faster and more effective when the individuals have fewer connections in a spatial mating network. Our results highlight the need to include mating complexities when modeling the properties of gene drives, such as release thresholds, timescales, and population-level consequences. This inclusion will enable a more confident prediction of the dynamics of engineered gene drives and possibly even inform about the origin and evolution of natural gene drives.
%0 Journal Article
%1 Verma.TheAmericanNaturalist.2023
%A Verma, Prateek
%A Reeves, R Guy
%A Simon, Samson
%A Otto, Mathias
%A Gokhale, Chaitanya S
%D 2023
%J The American Naturalist
%K imported tecoevo
%N 1
%P E1--E22
%R 10.1086/722157
%T The Effect of Mating Complexity on Gene Drive Dynamics
%V 201
%X AbstractGene drive technology promises to deliver on some of the global challenges humanity faces today in health care, agriculture, and conservation. However, there is a limited understanding of the consequences of releasing self-perpetuating transgenic organisms into wild populations under complex ecological conditions. In this study, we analyze the impact of three such complexities-mate choice, mating systems, and spatial mating network-on the population dynamics for two distinct classes of modification gene drive systems. All three factors had a high impact on the modeling outcome. First, we demonstrate that distortion-based gene drives appear to be more robust against mate choice than viability-based gene drives. Second, we find that gene drive spread is much faster for higher degrees of polygamy. Including a fitness cost, the drive is fastest for intermediate levels of polygamy. Finally, the spread of a gene drive is faster and more effective when the individuals have fewer connections in a spatial mating network. Our results highlight the need to include mating complexities when modeling the properties of gene drives, such as release thresholds, timescales, and population-level consequences. This inclusion will enable a more confident prediction of the dynamics of engineered gene drives and possibly even inform about the origin and evolution of natural gene drives.
@article{Verma.TheAmericanNaturalist.2023,
abstract = {{AbstractGene drive technology promises to deliver on some of the global challenges humanity faces today in health care, agriculture, and conservation. However, there is a limited understanding of the consequences of releasing self-perpetuating transgenic organisms into wild populations under complex ecological conditions. In this study, we analyze the impact of three such complexities-mate choice, mating systems, and spatial mating network-on the population dynamics for two distinct classes of modification gene drive systems. All three factors had a high impact on the modeling outcome. First, we demonstrate that distortion-based gene drives appear to be more robust against mate choice than viability-based gene drives. Second, we find that gene drive spread is much faster for higher degrees of polygamy. Including a fitness cost, the drive is fastest for intermediate levels of polygamy. Finally, the spread of a gene drive is faster and more effective when the individuals have fewer connections in a spatial mating network. Our results highlight the need to include mating complexities when modeling the properties of gene drives, such as release thresholds, timescales, and population-level consequences. This inclusion will enable a more confident prediction of the dynamics of engineered gene drives and possibly even inform about the origin and evolution of natural gene drives.}},
added-at = {2023-08-03T15:19:07.000+0200},
author = {Verma, Prateek and Reeves, R Guy and Simon, Samson and Otto, Mathias and Gokhale, Chaitanya S},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2e2ac565b2f8aab1883621c0b65277013/gokhalecs},
doi = {10.1086/722157},
interhash = {126d31974bc9a7a184adddeafbea35c8},
intrahash = {e2ac565b2f8aab1883621c0b65277013},
issn = {0003-0147},
journal = {The American Naturalist},
keywords = {imported tecoevo},
local-url = {file://localhost/Users/gokhale/Documents/Papers%20Library/Verma_The%20American%20Naturalist_2023_1.pdf},
number = 1,
pages = {E1--E22},
pmid = {36524934},
timestamp = {2023-08-03T15:19:43.000+0200},
title = {{The Effect of Mating Complexity on Gene Drive Dynamics}},
volume = 201,
year = 2023
}