Suppressing evolution in genetically engineered systems through repeated supplementation

Abstract

The tools provided by genetic engineering can fundamentally alter our technological approaches to medicine, agriculture, and ecology. Through their use, crops have been designed to increase yield while reducing loss from pests and disease (Pellegrino, Bedini, Nuti, & Ercoli, 2018). Critical medications, such as insulin and the mammalian growth hormone-inhibiting hormone, are now produced using bio-engineered organisms (Itakura et al., 1977). Genetically engineered organisms have been proposed to help facilitate adaptive responses to climate change, suppress undesirable or invasive populations, and reverse the fixation of deleterious mutations in at-risk populations of endangered plants and animals (Thomas et al., 2013). In addition, genetic engineering has made vaccines safer, more effective, faster to produce, and could make them easier to dissemi