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That's not how evolution works. Evolution does not select individuals, it selects genes.

Let's say that one of these genes kills offspring with probability 25%, but has gene drive so it's present in 100% of offspring. A normal gene doesn't kill offspring, but is only present in 50% of the offspring. The introduced gene will spread rapidly, since it has a 100% x 75% = 75% chance of being in a living offspring, even though it kills, since the ordinary gene only has a 50% x 100% = 50% chance of being in a living offspring.

That's why this is so terrifying. You can introduce a gene into a population that kills off the whole population.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_drive




Actually is the gene is too efficient at killing its offspring, it will kill its bearers before it can spread, and if it's not lethal enough, the population will just deal with it.

At 25%, it should allow the gene to spread in the population, but whether it's enough to eradicate the population depends on a lot of thing (the environment, how old the individuals die, etc.)


natural factors already causes a fairly high mortality of offspring before they get to reproductive age, and it seems like very few species would be able to cope with an additional 3-of-4 culling for an indefinite period of time.




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