ABSTRACT
Maternal effect dominant embryonic arrest (Medea) systems are selfish genetic elements that can bias their inheritance by selectively killing non-drive offspring using a toxin–antidote rescue system. They are single-construct designs, meaning all genetic elements involved are tightly linked and transfer as a unit. They were first discovered because of their spread throughout natural populations of the flour beetle Triboliumcastaneum, and the toxin–antidote system was eventually used to create the first synthetic drive system in the fruit fly. According to the models, Medea is regarded as a strong drive system that could spread payload genes rapidly if it is released at high frequencies and the fitness cost is kept low.
