Zhang Mengjun, Zhang Xiaxuan, Chen Tingting, Liao Yonglin, Yang Bin, Wang Guirong
State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China.
Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Synthetic Biology Laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China.
Insect Sci. 2025 Apr;32(2):631-648. doi: 10.1111/1744-7917.13403. Epub 2024 Jun 11.
The sweet potato weevil (Cylas formicarius) is a critical pest producing enormous global losses in sweet potato crops. Traditional pest management approaches for sweet potato weevil, primarily using chemical pesticides, causes pollution, food safety issues, and harming natural enemies. While RNA interference (RNAi) is a promising environmentally friendly approach to pest control, its efficacy in controlling the sweet potato weevil has not been extensively studied. In this study, we selected a potential target for controlling C. formicarius, the Troponin I gene (wupA), which is essential for musculature composition and crucial for fundamental life activities. We determined that wupA is abundantly expressed throughout all developmental stages of the sweet potato weevil. We evaluated the efficiency of double-stranded RNAs in silencing the wupA gene via microinjection and oral feeding of sweet potato weevil larvae at different ages. Our findings demonstrate that both approaches significantly reduced the expression of wupA and produced high mortality. Moreover, the 1st instar larvae administered dswupA exhibited significant growth inhibition. We assessed the toxicity of dswupA on the no-target insect silkworm and assessed its safety. Our study indicates that wupA knockdown can inhibit the growth and development of C. formicarius and offer a potential target gene for environmentally friendly control.
甘薯小象甲（甘薯小象虫）是一种关键害虫，给全球甘薯作物造成巨大损失。针对甘薯小象甲的传统害虫管理方法主要是使用化学农药，这会造成污染、引发食品安全问题并伤害天敌。虽然RNA干扰（RNAi）是一种很有前景的环保害虫防治方法，但其对甘薯小象甲的防治效果尚未得到广泛研究。在本研究中，我们选择了一个用于防治甘薯小象虫的潜在靶标，肌钙蛋白I基因（wupA），它对肌肉组织构成至关重要，对基本生命活动也至关重要。我们确定wupA在甘薯小象甲的所有发育阶段均大量表达。我们通过对不同龄期的甘薯小象甲幼虫进行显微注射和口服喂食来评估双链RNA沉默wupA基因的效率。我们的研究结果表明，这两种方法均显著降低了wupA的表达并导致高死亡率。此外，注射dswupA的一龄幼虫表现出显著的生长抑制。我们评估了dswupA对非靶标昆虫家蚕的毒性并评估了其安全性。我们的研究表明，敲低wupA可抑制甘薯小象虫的生长发育，并为环保防治提供一个潜在的靶标基因。
