3 ms·

A much faster solution: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_drive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_drive

• nerdponx 10y ago
  > Gene drives function only in secually reproducing species I don't see why this is necessarily the case. Couldn't you, say, slow yeast budding to the point of population collapse?
  • dflock 10y ago
    Sure, causing your expensive crispr yeast to die out, while having no effect on wild yeast?
  • tgb 10y ago
    The only organisms affected in an asexually reproducing species would be the direct descendants of those that you treat. In a sexually reproducing species, the goal is to engineer the gene to spread throughout the entire population, even if it reduces the individual fitness. Edit: though I guess I'm stating this poorly, since it would still only affect the direct descendants of those that you treat in a sexually reproducing species, however there's the possibility of that becoming 100% of the species without having to kill off all the untreated specimens.