RNA Interference in Insect Vectors for Plant Viruses.

Surapathrudu Kanakala,Murad Ghanim

doi:10.3390/v8120329

Surapathrudu Kanakala, Murad Ghanim

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/v8120329

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Abstract

Insects and other arthropods are the most important vectors of plant pathogens. The majority of plant pathogens are disseminated by arthropod vectors such as aphids, beetles, leafhoppers, planthoppers, thrips and whiteflies. Transmission of plant pathogens and the challenges in managing insect vectors due to insecticide resistance are factors that contribute to major food losses in agriculture. RNA interference (RNAi) was recently suggested as a promising strategy for controlling insect pests, including those that serve as important vectors for plant pathogens. The last decade has witnessed a dramatic increase in the functional analysis of insect genes, especially those whose silencing results in mortality or interference with pathogen transmission. The identification of such candidates poses a major challenge for increasing the role of RNAi in pest control. Another challenge is to understand the RNAi machinery in insect cells and whether components that were identified in other organisms are also present in insect. This review will focus on summarizing success cases in which RNAi was used for silencing genes in insect vector for plant pathogens, and will be particularly helpful for vector biologists.

Highlights

Insect vectors for plant pathogens are worldwide pests and pose a continuous threat to plants of economic importance
Two approaches have been developed: the first involves the use of transgenic plants expressing toxins from the bacterium Bacillus thurengiensis (Bt), and the second approach using plant-derived genes such as those that encode for inhibitors or lectins
Rangasamy and Siegfried (2012) [147] demonstrated effective silencing in Western corn rootworm (WCR) after feeding adults with artificial diet supplemented with double stranded RNA (dsRNA) for V-ATPase

Summary

Introduction

Insect vectors for plant pathogens are worldwide pests and pose a continuous threat to plants of economic importance. They vector bacteria and fungi and are responsible for the transmission of more than 70% of all known plant viruses [1]. Many factors still limit these approaches to be fully successful such as: (a) Bt crops are not universal to all insect pests and are limited in their effectiveness against all insect; (b) sustainability; and (c) durability Combining this with the increased ability of insect pests to develop resistance to all major insecticides including resistance to transgenic plants have facilitated the development of new methods for plant protection including RNAi-based protection

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