Development and testing of a novel killer-rescue self-limiting gene drive system in Drosophila melanogaster

Here we report the development and testing of a novel self-limiting gene drive system, Killer-Rescue (K-R), in Drosophila melanogaster. This system is composed of an autoregulated Gal4 Killer (K) and a Gal4-activated Gal80 Rescue (R). Overexpression of Gal4 is lethal, but in the presence of R activation of Gal80 leads to much lower levels of Gal4 and rescue of lethality. We demonstrate that with a single 2 : 1 engineered to wild-type release, K drives R through the population and after nine generations, more than 98% of the population carry R and less than 2% of the population are wild-type flies. We discuss how this simple K-R gene drive system may be readily adapted for population replacement in a human health pest, Aedes aegypti, or for population suppression in an agricultural pest, Drosophila suzukii.