Affiliation:
1. School of Plant Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
2. Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS, USA
Abstract
RNAi promises to reshape pest control by being nontoxic, biodegradable, and species specific. However, due to the plastic nature of RNAi, there is a significant variability in responses. In this study, we investigate small RNA pathways and processing of ingested RNAi trigger molecules in a hemipteran plant pest, the whitefly Bemisia tabaci. Unlike Drosophila, where the paradigm for insect RNAi technology was established, whitefly has abundant somatic piwi-associated RNAs (piRNAs). Long regarded as germline restricted, piRNAs are common in the soma of many invertebrates. We sought to exploit this for a novel gene silencing approach. The main principle of piRNA biogenesis is the recruitment of target RNA fragments into the pathway. As such, we designed synthetic RNAs to possess complementarity to the loci we annotated. Following feeding of these exogenous piRNA triggers knockdown as effective as conventional siRNA-only approaches was observed. These results demonstrate a new approach for RNAi technology that could be applicable to dsRNA-recalcitrant pest species and could be fundamental to realizing insecticidal RNAi against pests.
Funder
Cotton Incorporated Project
USDA-NIFA Project
NSF MCB
Publisher
Life Science Alliance, LLC
Subject
Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis,Plant Science,Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (miscellaneous),Ecology
Cited by
21 articles.
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