Simulations reveal high efficiency and confinement of a population suppression CRISPR toxin-antidote gene drive

Abstract

Though engineered gene drives hold great promise for spreading through and eventually suppressing populations of disease vectors or invasive species, complications such as resistance alleles and spatial population structure can prevent their success. Additionally, most forms of suppression drives, such as homing drives or driving Y chromosomes, will generally spread uncontrollably between populations with even small levels of migration. The previously proposed CRISPR-based toxin-antidote system called TADE suppression drive could potentially address the issue of confinement and resistance alleles. However, it is a relatively weak form of drive compared to homing drives, which might make it particularly vulnerable to spatial population structure. In this study, we investigate TADE suppression drive using individual-based simulations in continuous space. We find that the drive is actually more confined in continuous space than in panmictic populations, even in its most efficient form with a low cleavage rate in embryos from maternally deposited Cas9. Furthermore, the drive performed well in continuous space scenarios if the initial release requirements were met, suppressing the populations in a timely manner without being severely affected by chasing, a phenomenon in which wild-type individuals avoid the drive by recolonizing empty areas. At higher embryo cut rates, the drive loses its ability to propagate on its own, but a single, widespread release can often still induce rapid population collapse. Thus, if TADE suppression gene drives can be successfully constructed, they may play an important role in control of disease vectors and invasive species when stringent confinement to target populations is desired.