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[Harry Baldman]

I mean, it doesn't necessarily have to be a very competent virus that uses it. The Ebola virus is, on the whole, not very good at what it does, but its unfortunate tendency to kill the people it infects (to the point where the especially competent and dangerous strains can manage fatalities as low as 50%) is what makes it so generally disliked compared to a touch of rhinovirus. It doesn't have to be optimal to cause damage. Quite the opposite.

As for what function it could serve, you could get the scenario where the nuclease in question gets a nonspecific enough guide sequence to cleave the host DNA into a whole lot of chunks, analogically to a virulent phage in a bacterium. I think that's a mechanism that animal viruses might use already, but something like CRISPR seems unlikely to have an established defense against it (if it did, I don't think it'd be so easy to use for the purpose it's intended).

[Loud Whispers]

I'm searching online and I've heard the proposal that gene drive could be used to kill the entirety of an invasive species.

Here's a question:

Is it ethical to wipe out the local population of a species?

Is it ethical to wipe out the local population of an invasive species?

What is the difference between the two?

Fuck up bloodsucking invaders with no second thoughts

But for Lounibos, the fact this niche would be filled by another insect is part of the problem. He warns that mosquitoes could be replaced by an insect "equally, or more, undesirable from a public health viewpoint". Its replacement could even conceivably spread diseases further and faster than mosquitoes today.
SUPER MOSQUITOWASPIDERSCORPIONILIPEDE

[TheBiggerFish]

This thread exists.

[Max™]

Don't get me wrong, ending malaria and zika and all those is a goddamn fantastic goal.

Pushing a button and making all anopheles and aegypti everywhere explode in a tiny little puff of vanilla scented extinction would be awesome.

Relying on a species to carry out their own extermination through reproductive controls which specifically involve large population numbers and genetic sterilization is an unbelievably terrifying idea.

It is quite possible that it would go off without a hitch, pow, no more mosquito based diseases.

I don't like that I can't completely discount the possibility that something could end up getting transmitted, mixed up, selected for and against, and wind up with some sort of limpdick superplague wiping out an entirely different species.

Maybe it would be something like another disease carrying mosquito, maybe it would be something that feeds on them like bats, or something that they feed on, like us.

It's still crazy sci-fi doomsday territory, and it's arguably one of the worst-case ones at that. There are any number of different twists which fall squarely in the "things are bad forever" category, and far more under the "well shit, that sucks" heading which require less improbable sequences of events.

[Loud Whispers]

Don't get me wrong, ending malaria and zika and all those is a goddamn fantastic goal.
Pushing a button and making all anopheles and aegypti everywhere explode in a tiny little puff of vanilla scented extinction would be awesome.
Relying on a species to carry out their own extermination through reproductive controls which specifically involve large population numbers and genetic sterilization is an unbelievably terrifying idea.
It is quite possible that it would go off without a hitch, pow, no more mosquito based diseases.
I don't like that I can't completely discount the possibility that something could end up getting transmitted, mixed up, selected for and against, and wind up with some sort of limpdick superplague wiping out an entirely different species.
Maybe it would be something like another disease carrying mosquito, maybe it would be something that feeds on them like bats, or something that they feed on, like us.
It's still crazy sci-fi doomsday territory, and it's arguably one of the worst-case ones at that. There are any number of different twists which fall squarely in the "things are bad forever" category, and far more under the "well shit, that sucks" heading which require less improbable sequences of events.

-create retrovirus that turns mosquito offspring infertile
-mosquito infect humans with retrovirus
-mankind becomes infertile in one generation
this is the future we chose

future species will give thanks to our noble sacrifice

[Eric Blank]

future species will give thanks to our noble sacrifice

Be both completely ignorant and ambivalent to it, most like

[FantasticDorf]

Doom mongering here, but a recent science study showed that zika virus causes 'manhoods' to shrink as a symptom, a bit of a awkward search engine search if you're looking for articles about it. Imagine a gene meddling mix up that caused infertility because of that affliction based on poor knowledge of how the zika virus reacts to the genetic/bodily state of its host or its consequences to future viral mutations based off that data.

> Literally the film 'Children of men''s scenario playing out before our eyes.

Also what's to say that in future providing the creature manages to hold on via a slim resistance and select breeders/misguided conservationists that it doesn't evolve to fix the issue by changing from male to female? Gender altercation already happens on much larger creatures like amphibians.

[WealthyRadish]

I think if humans managed to go extinct without killing the planet (too badly) first, it wouldn't be too long before a new intelligent species shows up. Mammals seem to have the winning characteristics for adaptability and capacity for learned behavior, and it's hard to imagine them going completely extinct. Though it may be a possibility that mammals will lose their edge as the climate warms, and get outcompeted until the next major continental collision cools things down again. The Mediterranean dying will probably buy us another massive ice age, anyway.

[BorkBorkGoesTheCode]

Cause of the Fermi paradox.

[eerr]

https://www.quora.com/Can-we-package-the-CRISPR-Cas9-system-into-a-viral-vector-to-enhance-the-precision-of-gene-therapy
It should be noted that taking on a large payload of genetic material decreases the fitness of a virus, assuming the payload fits at all.

Also note that Crispr has been around for possibly millions or trillions of years.

http://ensia.com/voices/crispr-is-coming-to-agriculture-with-big-implications-for-food-farmers-consumers-and-nature/

https://www.addgene.org/crispr/guide/
*the ability to (at least temporarily) knock out genes using modified Cas-9
*as a detection method

[MrRoboto75]

This thread exists.

Does anything truly exist?

[eerr]

https://www.addgene.org/crispr/guide/
Details about how Crisper-CAS9 works. Enough details to be used as a passing reference in a lab setting.

[eerr]

http://www.nature.com/news/crispr-gene-editing-is-just-the-beginning-1.19510

*deactivate and activate targeted genes at will

[Max™]

The more I look at it the more exciting and terrifying it becomes. I can at least take comfort knowing that physics doesn't have room for nonsense that would be required for this to be a Trek universe. I really don't want to live in a Trek universe. Culture or bust, baby!

[Folly]

Hey, over in the Cartoons thread we've determined that children need to be permanently blinded. The reason why isn't important...just know that it's for a good and worthy cause. Is there anything that genetic engineers can do to help make this happen?