Abstract
The pollen beetle Brassicogethes aeneus is a serious pest of oilseed rape (Brassica napus) in Europe. Management of this pest has grown difficult due to B. aeneus’s development of resistance to pyrethroid insecticides, as well as the pressure to establish control strategies that minimise the impact on nontarget organisms. RNA interference represents a nucleotide sequence-based, and thus potentially species-specific, approach to agricultural pest control. The present study examined the efficacy of targeting the coatomer gene coatomer subunit alpha (αCOP), via both microinjection and dietary exposure to exogenous complementary dsRNA, on αCOP-silencing and subsequent mortality in B. aeneus. Beetles injected with dsRNA targeting αCOP (at 0.14 µg/mg) showed 88% and 100% mortality at 6 and 10 days post-injection, respectively; where by the same time after dietary exposure, 43%–89% mortality was observed in the 3 µg dsRNA/µL treatment, though the effect was concentration-dependent. Thus, the effect was significant for both delivery routes. In working towards RNA-based management of B. aeneus, future studies should include αCOP as a target of interest.
Highlights
The pollen beetle Brassicogethes aeneus Fabricius (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae; formerly Meligethes aeneus) is Europe’s primary pest of oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.)
Treatment groups analysed for relative gene expression were six in total, including: those microinjected with dsGFP and dsαCOP; as well as those fed with dsGFP and dsαCOP, both at 1 and 3 μg double-stranded ribonucleic acid (dsRNA)/μL
We provide laboratory evidence suggesting that αCOP is an effective RNA interference (RNAi) target in B. aeneus, as mortality in B. aeneus was highly significant after dietary exposure to both concentrations of dsαCOP, confirming B. aeneus’s sensitivity to RNAi via dietary exposure to dsαCOP, which is in agreement with Knorr et al (2018)
Summary
The pollen beetle Brassicogethes aeneus Fabricius (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae; formerly Meligethes aeneus) is Europe’s primary pest of oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.). Upon emergence from eggs, larvae feed on pollen within buds, eventually obtaining their nutrients from open flowers, followed by pupation in the soil under their host plant (see review by Mauchline et al (2018)). While neonicotinoid insecticides are being applied in B. aeneus management (Seidenglanz et al 2017; Kaiser et al 2018), exposure to neonicotinoids has shown negative effects on a wide range of nontarget organisms (Gibbons et al 2015; Pisa et al 2017; Willow et al 2019; Berheim et al 2019; Calvo-Agudo et al 2019; Wu et al 2019). There is urgent need for developing pest control strategies that minimise the impact on nontarget organisms, for effective and ecologically sustainable B. aeneus management
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
