title: Parental RNA interference of genes involved in embryonic development of the western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte.
abstract: RNA interference (RNAi) is being developed as a potential tool for insect pest management and one of the most likely target pest species for transgenic plants that express double stranded RNA (dsRNA) is the western corn rootworm. Thus far, most genes proposed as targets for RNAi in rootworm cause lethality in the larval stage. In this study, we describe RNAi-mediated knockdown of two developmental genes, hunchback (hb) and brahma (brm), in the western corn rootworm delivered via dsRNA fed to adult females. dsRNA feeding caused a significant decrease in hb and brm transcripts in the adult females. Although total oviposition was not significantly affected, there was almost complete absence of hatching in the eggs collected from females exposed to dsRNA for either gene. These results confirm that RNAi is systemic in nature for western corn rootworms. These results also indicate that hunchback and brahma play important roles in rootworm embryonic development and could provide useful RNAi targets in adult rootworms to prevent crop injury by impacting the population of larval progeny of exposed adults. The ability to deliver dsRNA in a trans-generational manner by feeding to adult rootworms may offer an additional approach to utilizing RNAi for rootworm pest management. The potential to develop parental RNAi technology targeting progeny of adult rootworms in combination with Bt proteins or dsRNA lethal to larvae may increase opportunities to develop sustainable approaches to rootworm management involving RNAi technologies for rootworm control.
authors.affiliation: University of Nebraska, Department of Entomology, 103 Entomology Hall, Lincoln, NE 68583-0816, United States.
authors.forename: Chitvan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Khajuria
authors.affiliation: University of Nebraska, Department of Entomology, 103 Entomology Hall, Lincoln, NE 68583-0816, United States.
authors.forename: Ana M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Vélez
authors.affiliation: Dow AgroSciences, 9330 Zionsville Road, Indianapolis, IN 46268, United States.
authors.forename: Murugesan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rangasamy
authors.affiliation: University of Nebraska, Department of Entomology, 103 Entomology Hall, Lincoln, NE 68583-0816, United States.
authors.forename: Haichuan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Dow AgroSciences, 9330 Zionsville Road, Indianapolis, IN 46268, United States.
authors.forename: Elane
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fishilevich
authors.affiliation: Dow AgroSciences, 9330 Zionsville Road, Indianapolis, IN 46268, United States.
authors.forename: Meghan L F
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Frey
authors.affiliation: Embrapa Maize and Sorghum, Rodovia MG 424, Sete Lagoas, MG, Brazil.
authors.forename: Newton Portilho
authors.initials: NP
authors.lastname: Carneiro
authors.affiliation: Dow AgroSciences, 9330 Zionsville Road, Indianapolis, IN 46268, United States.
authors.forename: Premchand
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gandra
authors.affiliation: Dow AgroSciences, 9330 Zionsville Road, Indianapolis, IN 46268, United States.
authors.forename: Kenneth E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Narva
authors.affiliation: University of Nebraska, Department of Entomology, 103 Entomology Hall, Lincoln, NE 68583-0816, United States. Electronic address: bsiegfried1@unl.edu.
authors.forename: Blair D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Siegfried
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001517:Coleoptera / Q000196:embryology* / Q000235:genetics*; D004032:Diet; D005260:Female; D017344:Genes, Insect; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010058:Oviposition; D034622:RNA Interference; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D019476:Insect Proteins
keywords: Brahma; Hunchback; RNAi; Western corn rootworm; pRNAi