Gene drive in Cytomegalovirus

Current engineered gene drive strategies rely on sexual reproduction and it was therefore thought that gene drives could not be engineered in asexual organisms such as bacteria and viruses. Here however, we designed a novel gene drive system that allows for the spread of an engineered trait in populations of DNA viruses, and in particular, herpesviruses. We describe the successful transmission of a gene drive sequence between distinct strains of human Cytomegalovirus (Human Herpesvirus 5), and show that gene drive viruses can efficiently target and replace wildtype populations in cell culture experiments. Our results indicated that viral gene drive can be used to block or drastically circumvent viral infection, which represents a novel therapeutic strategy against herpesviruses.