Page - 82 - in Critical Issues in Science, Technology and Society Studies - Conference Proceedings of the 17th STS Conference Graz 2018

A problematic subject for technology assessment: Gene Drives as a revolution in GMO-handling GIESE, Bernd (1), FRIESS, Johannes (2) (1)Institute of Safety and Risk Sciences (ISR), University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna, Austria (2) Department of Technology Design and Development, University of Bremen, Germany Gene drives represent a revolution in genetic engineering because they enable the genomic manipulation of the fate of entire wild populations in an as yet unmatched extent. This potential is achieved by so-called super-mendelian inheritance which facilitates an increased spread of their genetic elements within populations of sexually reproducing species. Gene drives are in particular relevant for species with a comparably short generation time like insects. Within a time course of about 2-3 years, a new trait could then be adopted by nearly all individuals due to vertical gene transfer (i.e. from parent to offspring). If the trait delivered by the drive represents a fitness burden or renders the male or female offspring infertile, an entire population may go extinct after some generations. Many applications are considered for gene drives in agriculture, ecosystem-engineering or to fight infectious diseases. In agriculture, weeds and crop pests could be altered, suppressed or eliminated. Two potential applications of gene drives even serve issues of nature conservation, namely the eradication of invasive species and the conservation of endangered species (Esvelt et al. 2014; Webber, Raghu, and Edwards 2015). Endangered species may become immunized against pathogens by a genomic modification which is transferred by a gene drive. With regard to infectious diseases, especially malaria- or dengue-carrying mosquitoes are potential targets (Dong et al. 2018; Burt et al. 2018; Marshall and Akbari 2016)1. In many potential applications, gene drives should be used as a kind of self- propagating delete-function. Even for applications against infectious diseases, besides an immunization of mosquitoes against the pathogen, the suppression of the vector population is an intended aim. Gene drives have not been released so far, but an increasing number of laboratories and projects are developing systems whose applications involve a release of gene drive carrying organisms. This contribution serves as an introduction into the field of gene drives. It explains the qualitative difference that genetic engineering has achieved with this technology and highlights potential influences on ecosystems. Furthermore, an approach of technology characterization is presented which helps to estimate the potential power and the corresponding extent of non- knowledge associated with gene drive systems. A revolution in GMO-release2 Gene drives can be understood as ‘selfish’ genetic elements that are able to spread their genetic information faster than Mendel's Principles of Heredity permit, according to which a trait 1 Cp. the STS proceedings paper “CRISPR/Cas9 based gene drives for fighting malaria: aspects of prospective technology assessment” of Wolfgang Liebert. (cf. S. 107) 2 Cp. the STS proceedings paper “Technology Assessment of Gene Drives” of Johannes Frieß et al. for a characterization of gene drive systems and its potential applications. (cf. S. 99) 82