Name: What is gene drives about?
Uploaded: 2021-04-24T00:57:03.000Z
Duration: 3 min 1 s
Description: VoiceTubeの動画で発音を聞きながら英語表現を覚えよう！学べる英語：

and I am an expert at EFSA specialising in sustainable agriculture.

Today, I am going to talk  to you about gene drives.

Usually, when two individuals mate, each parent passes

one of the two copies of each gene onto their offspring.

So each copy has a 50% chance  of passing on to the next generation.

Gene drives, on the other hand, increase the probability of inheritance of a gene up to 100%.

As a result, a gene drive can spread through population much faster than a normal gene.

But recent developments in molecular biology  are allowing scientists to engineer gene drives

and use them to push desirable genes into target populations.

This has opened the door for using gene drives to:

wipe out disease carriers, such as mosquitoes that transmit malaria,

control agricultural pests like fruit flies,

eradicate invasive species like rodents from islands,

and rescue endangered species threatened by pathogens.

Research in the field of gene drives is advancing rapidly.

And different gene drives have already been developed that rely on different strategies.

Their two main aims are either to suppress or replace pest populations.

In insects, suppression drives aim to reduce the size of a pest population.

A way to achieve this is through “inactivation” of important genes involved in survival or reproduction.

Replacement drives, on the other hand, aim to change the genetic makeup of an organism

so it can no longer transmit a disease, or it is more resistant to a pathogen.

While gene drives hold much promise, their development and deliberate release

into the environment raise concerns about the potential for uncontrolled

and self-sustained spread of some gene drives,

and the possibility of altering ecosystems irreversibly.

So it's essential that gene drive research and releases are done safely,

responsibly, and involve societal engagement.

Scientific advisory bodies like EFSA,  assess potential adverse effects on humans,

animals and the environment,  from deploying gene drive modified organisms.

Decision-makers, such as the European Commission and Member States, use that advice to weigh up

the potential risks and benefits of such organisms

and also take account of social and economic factors

in deciding whether they should be used and how.