Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Nov 4;9(6):e1236163.
doi: 10.1080/19420889.2016.1236163. eCollection 2016.

Oral delivery of dsRNA by microbes: Beyond pest control

Antoine Abrieux  1 , Joanna C Chiu  1
Affiliations

Oral delivery of dsRNA by microbes: Beyond pest control

Antoine Abrieux et al. Commun Integr Biol. .

Abstract

RNA interference (RNAi) by oral delivery of dsRNA in insects has great potential as a tool for integrated pest management (IPM), especially with respect to addressing the need to reduce off-target effect and slow down resistance development to chemical insecticides. Employing the natural association existing between insect and yeast, we developed a novel method to enable the knock down of vital genes in the pest insect Drosophila suzukii through oral delivery of species-specific dsRNA using genetically modified Saccharomyces cerevisae. D. suzukii that were fed with our "yeast biopesticide" showed a significant decrease in fitness. In this perspective article, we postulate that this approach could be adapted to a large number of species, given the great diversity of symbiotic interactions involving microorganisms and host species. Furthermore, we speculate that beyond its application as biopesticide, dsRNA delivery by genetically modified microbes can also serve to facilitate reverse genetic applications, specifically in non-model organisms.

Keywords: RNA interference; gene silencing; microbes; pest management; reverse genetics; yeast.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Schematic summarizing the protocol for production and oral delivery of genetically modified yeast expressing dsRNA to insect targets. Inverted repeats of target sequence are cloned into expression vector p406TEF1 and transformed into S. cerevisae. Transformants are selected on minimal media without Uracil. Previously expanded yeast culture is then pelleted and could be use for further applications. For more details, see ref. 2.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Erratum for

  • Addendum to: Murphy KA, Tabuloc CA, Cervantes KR, Chiu JC. Ingestion of genetically modified yeast symbiont reduces fitness of an insect pest via RNA interference. Sci Rep 2016; 6:22587; http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep22587

References

    1. Chandler JA, Eisen JA, Kopp A. Yeast communities of diverse Drosophila species: comparison of two symbiont groups in the same hosts. Appl Environ Microbiol 2012; 78:7327-36; PMID:22885750; http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/AEM.01741-12 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Murphy KA, Tabuloc CA, Cervantes KR, Chiu JC. Ingestion of genetically modified yeast symbiont reduces fitness of an insect pest via RNA interference. Sci Rep 2016; 6:22587; PMID:26931800; http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep22587 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Napoli C, Lemieux C, Jorgensen R. Introduction of a Chimeric Chalcone Synthase Gene into Petunia Results in Reversible Co-Suppression of Homologous Genes in trans. Plant Cell 1990; 2:279-89; PMID:12354959; http://dx.doi.org/10.1105/tpc.2.4.279 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Guo S, Kemphues KJ. par-1, a gene required for establishing polarity in C. elegans embryos, encodes a putative Ser/Thr kinase that is asymmetrically distributed. Cell 1995; 81:611-20; PMID:7758115; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0092-8674(95)90082-9 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Fire A, Xu S, Montgomery MK, Kostas SA, Driver SE, Mello CC. Potent and specific genetic interference by double-stranded RNA in Caenorhabditis elegans. Nature 1998; 391:806-11; PMID:9486653; http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/35888 - DOI - PubMed