Bio-engineering entire species in the wild – eco-evolutionary dynamics of gene drives

The Anthropocene has affected many species across most ecosystems, leading some species to become widespread, invasive, and harmful to ecosystems and societies. One of the promising ways to suppress such pest populations is though introduction of engineered genetic constructs called `gene drives’, which can rapidly spread in a population through super-Mendelian inheritance. These genetic constructs can potentially modify entire populations and species to become less harmful and, because they can spread deleterious genes even under the presence of strong negative selection, can also be used to suppress and eradicate populations. However, along with the promise of this technology, it raises serious concerns regarding spillover to other non-target populations and species, and the potential for driving emergence of novel resistance alleles. In this talk I will present our work on consideration of key ecological features that may affect the outcomes of gene drive deployments. Through mathematical and computational models, we explore the consequences of spatial structure, environmental variability, and demography on the eco-evolutionary dynamics of gene drives.