Chen, C.H., Huang, H., Ward, C.M., Su, J.T., Schaeffer, L.V., Guo, M., Hay, B.A. (2007). A synthetic maternal-effect selfish genetic element drives population replacement in Drosophila.  Science 316(5824): 597--600.

FBrf0200061

Research paper

One proposed strategy for controlling the transmission of insect-borne pathogens uses a drive mechanism to ensure the rapid spread of transgenes conferring disease refractoriness throughout wild populations. Here, we report the creation of maternal-effect selfish genetic elements in Drosophila that drive population replacement and are resistant to recombination-mediated dissociation of drive and disease refractoriness functions. These selfish elements use microRNA-mediated silencing of a maternally expressed gene essential for embryogenesis, which is coupled with early zygotic expression of a rescuing transgene.