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Reported by Kate McNeil, CSaP Communications Coordinator
Why should conservationists be interested in the technological ability to change the genome of wild, free-moving species? What governance mechanisms are guiding discussions around the use of these technologies in conservation?
In the third episode of our 4-part mini-series on genetic technologies, Dr Rob Doubleday was joined by University of Cambridge geographer and Emeritus Moran Professor of Conservation Professor Bill Adams, and Dr Catherine Rhodes, the Executive Director of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk and a Senior Research Associate, Biosecurity Research Initiative at St Catharine's College, Cambridge. Throughout the episode, they discussed gene drives, the implications of genetic technologies for conservation, biological conventions, and biological risks.
You can listen to the episode here:
The Potential of Genetic Technologies:
Conservation science has come late to the game of thinking about gene editing, but according to Professor Adams, there are increasingly reasons to think about the potential applications of this technology. First and foremost, there is a series of problems with global biodiversity loss which are not being addressed adequately by existing methods – this relates to animal diseases and planet disease, which are spreading quickly. There are also significant problems with invasive species, particularly on oceanic islands, and existing methods of control are difficult to make work and expensive. Moreover, problems of environmental change may be able to addressed by breeding species which respond to our changing climate, such as breeding new corals which can cope with an acidifying ocean environment. Finally, some people have suggested that you could use gene editing to engage in de-extinction. Most of these proposed areas of application remain speculative, however, gene editing has been used to produce disease resistant North American chestnuts, and there is ongoing work on using gene drive techniques to control mosquitos.
Understanding Gene Drives:
Gene drives are a way of pushing or driving a genetic trait in a way that is more rapid than through natural processes. According to Dr Rhodes, this method could be used to shorten the time that it would take to, for example, create a population crash in mosquitos. While synthetic gene drives have not moved beyond the laboratory, there is a proof of concept within that space, and there are also natural bacteria which can function as a gene drive. There have been serious proposals which have discussed using this technology to control disease vectors – with the classic example of mosquitoes and malaria, and others raising the prospect of using this technology to manage vectors of wildlife diseases. According to Professor Adams, there is a growing body of literature discussing the feasibility of using these techniques, which explores the costs, effectiveness, and risk. However, there is not yet a wider debate within the conservation movement about it.
Governance:
According to Dr Rhodes, the management of these technologies will cut across several sets of governance and frameworks, including the Convention on Biodiversity, biological weapons conventions, trade agreements, and the interests of the World Health Organization. Dr Rhodes suggests that there will be a need for these bodies to adapt to keep track of where this science and technology is going, using mechanisms such as voluntary guidance as transitionary measures. She notes that there are now ongoing discussions around the future of gene editing technologies in these spaces, with ongoing discussions about gene drives and synthetic biology as they relate to the Convention on Biodiversity. One area where there may be a need for work here pertains to the transboundary movement of modified living organisms, as existing regulations focus on plants, rather than on insects or invasive species.
As we go forward in applying these technologies, Professor Adams notes that we will face a ‘classic difficulty’, where we have a technology that can be used in a huge number of different ways by a wide variety of different actors for different applications, some of whose wider implications will be harder to assess. Meanwhile, Dr Rhodes has stressed that some of the risks here will come less from those who deliberately want to use these technologies to cause harm, and more from those who want to apply these technologies for good reasons, but who have not yet thought through the consequences of doing so. She stresses a need for greater awareness, so that those who have the capacity to tinker around with genome editing will be aware of the whole ecosystem context, how you might want to assess potential impacts on the environment, and where you might need to undertake further consultation.
CSaP: The Science & Policy Podcast’s four-part miniseries on Science, Policy and Genetic Technologies was released throughout February 2021. This series is available across all major podcasting platforms, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RadioPublic, Pocket Casts, Podbean, ListenNotes, Acast, Player.FM, Podcast Addict, and Castbox. This series was hosted by Dr Rob Doubleday and was produced by Kate McNeil with the support of research assistant Alice Millington.