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Dryad

Development and testing of a novel Killer-Rescue self-limiting gene drive system in Drosophila melanogaster

Cite this dataset

Scott, Maxwell; Webster, Sophia; Vella, Michael (2020). Development and testing of a novel Killer-Rescue self-limiting gene drive system in Drosophila melanogaster [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.9zw3r22b0

Abstract

Here we report the development and testing of a novel self-limiting gene drive system, Killer-Rescue, in Drosophila melanogaster. This system is composed of an auto-regulated Gal4 Killer (K) and a Gal4-activated Gal80 Rescue (R). Overexpression of Gal4 is lethal, but in the presence of R activation of Gal80 leads to much lower levels of Gal4 and rescue of lethality. We demonstrate that with a single 2:1 engineered to wildtype release, K drives R through the population and after nine generations more than 98% of the population carry R and less than 2% of the population are wildtype flies. We discuss how this simple Killer-Rescue gene drive system may be readily adapted for population replacement in a human health pest, Aedes aegypti, or for population suppression in an agricultural pest, Drosophila suzukii.

Methods

Fly counts, list of fly genotypes, primer sequences and figures to accompany paper

Usage notes

Data and figures to accompany paper

Funding

NSF IGERT program, Award: 1068676

National Science Foundation, Award: RTG/DMS-1246991

NSF IGERT program, Award: 1068676