Advances in the Development of Microbial Double-Stranded RNA Production Systems for Application of RNA Interference in Agricultural Pest Control.

Ruobing Guan,Xuexia Miao,Xinyi Han,Haichao Li,Dongdong Chu

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2021.753790

Abstract

RNA interference (RNAi) is a valuable and revolutionary technology that has been widely applied in medicine and agriculture. The application of RNAi in various industries requires large amounts of low-cost double-stranded RNA (dsRNA). Chemical synthesis can only produce short dsRNAs; long dsRNAs need to be synthesized biologically. Several microbial chassis cells, such as Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Bacillus species, have been used for dsRNA synthesis. However, the titer, rate of production, and yield of dsRNA obtained by these microorganism-based strategies is still low. In this review, we summarize advances in microbial dsRNA production, and analyze the merits and faults of different microbial dsRNA production systems. This review provides a guide for dsRNA production system selection. Future development of efficient microbial dsRNA production systems is also discussed.

Highlights

The large-scale use of chemical pesticides creates tremendous ecological pressure on soil, water, air, and the human living environment
E. coli strain HT115 (DE3) was used to express double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) of the Chinese Sacbrood Virus (CSBV) VP1, which was fed to Chinese honeybees (Apis cerana) and effectively prevented the virus infecting the bees (Zhang et al, 2016)
Mottle Virus (PMMoV) and Plum Pox Virus (PPV), effectively reduced the infection of N. benthamiana by these two viruses (Tenllado et al, 2003). All these results show that engineered E. coli can synthesize dsRNAs, and the dsRNA produced can induce RNA interference (RNAi) effects in the corresponding target organisms

Summary

Introduction

The large-scale use of chemical pesticides creates tremendous ecological pressure on soil, water, air, and the human living environment. The in vivo synthesis strategy produces low-cost dsRNA in high yields, but this strategy requires later purification of the product and inactivation of the engineered microbial strain (Mendiola et al, 2020). The in vivo synthesis strategy is more likely to reduce dsRNA production costs and increase yields in the future (Cooper et al, 2021).

Results

Conclusion