Gene, genie Pests get the snip

combat a scourge held responsible for around 20 per cent of North Island beehive losses in 2015, and now found in New Zealand in their highest density.

In stoats and rats, the use of gene drives to control wild populations of rodents and stoats would likely require the breeding and repeated release of very large numbers of altered animals over large areas.

The panel reported that eradicating rats in New Zealand, where our ecosystems were free of rodents up until human arrival around 800 years ago, may have few knock-on effects.

However, in other parts of the globe the effects on natural systems might be very different.

Rats were excellent invaders, dispersed well, and hybridised with closely related species, making accidental release and spread of gene-drive-modified rats a serious consideration.

Similarly, stoats are an important animal in northern European ecosystems, so even the prospect of such an incident could mean the need for a means to turn off any gene

drive.

Gene editing in healthcare

Scenarios in the panel’s healthcare paper, meanwhile, explored potential ways to cure or prevent disease in a person, or reduce disease risk or enhance biological function in offspring.

“Perhaps New Zealanders might feel comfortable using gene editing to cure a disease in an individual, especially for one of the 3000 disorders linked with a known gene mutation,” Scott said.

“But they may be opposed to germline therapy, which can pass changes on to future generations.”

There were methods available to avoid the transmission of disease controlled by a single gene, notably the BRCA1 gene that’s known to raise the risk of cancer.

A patient might employ in vitro fertilisation and use CRISPR to revert any mutation-bearing embryos back to a version of the gene not associated with the disease — something banned under current law.

Another patient, with a family history of early deaths through coronary artery disease linked to high blood cholesterol, might request gene editing of their liver to influence a cholesterol-lowering effect.

But while that proposed modification occurred naturally, introducing it through gene editing might lead to it interacting with other genes to produce adverse effects.

“In producing these resources we sought to set out relevant considerations on how, practically, gene-editing techniques could be applied in these areas, as well as highlight important legal and ethical considerations to help people engage with the topic,” Scott said.

“The technology of gene editing offers society a wide range of opportunities such as curing diseases and eradicating pests but, like all new technologies, there are uncertainties and there may be areas where collectively we are comfortable to use the technology and areas where we are not.”

‘No plans’ to change laws — minister

In New Zealand, no one was currently advocating for the use of the experimental and untested technology of gene drives as conceived in their most basic way.

Treating sickle cell anaemia Preventing cancer gene passing to offspring Reducing risk of cardiovascular disease