Scientists have warned that the so-called gene drive technology that can produce "supercharged" genetically modified (GM) organisms could fall into the wrong hands. These organisms can be used by terrorist to intentionally cause environmental disasters.
The method makes mutations dominate when insects reproduce so there is an increased likelihood of spreading the change to the next generation.
The technology speeds up the spread of GM genes in fast-producing species such as mosquitoes, which could potentially prevent the spread of crop pests and insect-borne diseases as well as reduce the damages caused by invasive species.
The US National Academy of Sciences already conducted a review of gene drives and a group of geneticists now calls for strict controls on how this technology is used in labs to minimize the potential risk of unintentional escape, which could have dangerous consequences.
The scientists think that if it goes to the wrong hands, the technology can pose threats to human health and the environment if it is deliberately released without safeguards.
Some believe that the gene-drive technology could be used by terrorists as bio-weapon that could specifically target people or animals as it allows GM genes to spread fast like a viral infection within a population of species so it can be cheap and easy to produce.
Gene-drive expert Kevin Esvelt, from Harvard Medical School, said that the technology was developed in theory about a decade ago but it was only made possible in the laboratory in the past two years after the gene editing tool called Crispr/Cas9 was discovered.
Esvelt said that the technology relied on a cassette of genetic elements that enable genetically modified genes to jump in between chromosomes within the same individual until all of its eggs or sperm carried the same genetically modified trait instead of just half, which means that its offsprings would no longer be free from the introduced GM trait.
Although gene drives may help make changes in insect populations responsible for human diseases such as mosquitoes that transmit serious diseases including dengue, malaria and chikingunya so that they can no longer pose threats, some scientists are concerned that the ease associated with the technology will make it a target for dangerous organizations or individuals with access to modern lab equipment.
"Just as gene drives can make mosquitoes unfit for hosting and spreading the malaria parasite, they could conceivably be designed with gene drives carrying cargo for delivering lethal bacterial toxins to humans," said geneticist David Gurwitz, from Tel Aviv University in Israel.
Photo: John Tann | Flickr
