Controlling the exchange of genetic information between sexually-reproducing populations has applications in agriculture, eradication of disease vectors, control of invasive species, and the safe study of emerging biotechnology applications. We introduce an approach to engineer a genetic barrier to sexual reproduction between otherwise compatible populations. Programmable transcription factors drive lethal gene expression in hybrid offspring following undesired mating events. As a proof of concept, we target the ACT1 promoter of the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae using a dCas9-based transcriptional activator. Lethal over-expression of actin results from mating this engineered strain with a strain containing the wild-type ACT1 promoter.

Engineering species-like barriers to sexual reproduction for applications in public health, agriculture, and the environment

255th National Meeting (2018)

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