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. 2024 Oct 24;19(10):e0308613.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0308613. eCollection 2024.

Sprayable RNAi for silencing of important genes to manage red palm weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

Muhammad Naeem Sattar  1 , Muhammad Nadir Naqqash  2 , Adel A Rezk  3 , Khalid Mehmood  2 , Allah Bakhsh  4 , Hamadttu Elshafie  5 , Jameel M Al-Khayri  3
Affiliations

Sprayable RNAi for silencing of important genes to manage red palm weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

Muhammad Naeem Sattar et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

The red palm weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Oliver, 1970) (Coleoptera: Dryophthoridae) is the most devastating insect-pest of palm trees worldwide. Synthetic insecticides are the most preferred tool for the management of RPW. Alternatively, RNA interference (RNAi) mediated silencing of crucial genes provides reasonable control of insect pests. Recently, we have targeted four important genes; ecdysone receptor (EcR), serine carboxypeptidase (SCP), actin and chitin-binding peritrophin (CBP) in the 3rd and 5th instar larvae RPW. The results from 20 days trial showed that the survival rate of 3rd instar larvae fed on SCP and actin dsRNAs exhibited the lowest survival (12-68%). While, in the 5th instar larvae, the lowest survival rate (24%) was recorded for SCP after 20 days of incubation. Similarly, the weight of the 3rd and 5th instar larvae treated with SCP and actin was significantly reduced to 2.30-2.36 g and 4.64-4.78 g after 6 days of dsRNA exposure. The larval duration was also decreased significantly in the larvae treated with all the dsRNA treatments. The qRT-PCR results confirmed a significant suppression of the targeted genes as 90-97% and 85-93% in the 3rd and 5th instar larvae, respectively. The results suggest that the SCP and the actin genes can be promising targets to mediate RNAi-based control of RPW.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interests.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1
The fragments of actin (A), CPB (B), EcR (C) and SCP (D) genes of RPW were cloned in L4440 vector and were named as L4440_Actin, L4440_CPB, L4440_EcR and L4440_SCP. The maps were developed using SnapGENE.
Fig 2
Fig 2
Survival of (A) 3rd instar and (B) 5th instar of RPW after feeding on different dsRNAs.
Fig 3
Fig 3
Weight change in (A) third instar and (B) fifth instar of RPW after feeding on different dsRNAs. Mean values followed by the different letter on the similar colored are statistically different (P ≤ 0.05).
Fig 4
Fig 4. Pupal duration of 3rd instar and 5th instar larvae of RPW after feeding on different dsRNAs.
Mean values followed by the different letter on the bars are statistically different (P ≤ 0.05).
Fig 5
Fig 5. Adult emergence of 3rd instar and 5th instar of RPW after feeding on different dsRNAs.
Mean values followed by the different letter on the bars are statistically different (P ≤ 0.05).
Fig 6
Fig 6
Effect of feeding dsRNAs on target-gene expression (Mean ± SE) in RPW (A) 3rd and 5th instar larvae after 6 days of feeding assay.
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