Darrington Mike, Solocinski Jason, Zhou Sophia K, Lecheta Melise C, Palli Subba Reddy, Chen Yolanda H, Teets Nicholas M
Department of Entomology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, USA.
Department of Plant and Soil Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, USA.
Insect Mol Biol. 2025 Aug;34(4):581-592. doi: 10.1111/imb.12996. Epub 2025 May 23.
Environmental RNAi (eRNAi) is a recent innovation in insect pest control, and comprehensive risk assessment is needed to ensure the environmental safety and longevity of this technology. As eRNAi relies on the insect's cellular machinery for its mode of action, environmentally mediated plasticity in the activity of cellular processes required for RNAi could influence efficacy and the development of resistance. Here, we investigated the extent to which plant cultivar and temperature influence the efficacy of insecticidal double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) targeting actin in larvae of the Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata Say (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae). Potato cultivar did not significantly affect survival or gene silencing in dsRNA-treated larvae, indicating that efficacy is consistent across potato varieties, at least under laboratory conditions. Temperature did influence RNAi efficacy, with both gene silencing and mortality being reduced when dsRNA treatment occurred at lower temperatures. After 3 days of feeding with dsRNA, gene silencing occurred at all temperatures, but knockdown efficiency was 62% at 30°C and 35% at 18°C. eRNAi efficacy at different temperatures was not related to transcript levels of core RNAi genes, indicating that other mechanisms are responsible for the observed effects. Overall, these results indicate that environmental conditions can influence the efficacy of insecticidal eRNAi and may affect the rate at which insects develop resistance to these technologies.
环境RNA干扰（eRNAi）是害虫防治领域的一项最新创新技术，需要进行全面的风险评估以确保该技术的环境安全性和长效性。由于eRNAi的作用方式依赖昆虫的细胞机制，RNA干扰所需细胞过程活性中的环境介导可塑性可能会影响其功效和抗性发展。在此，我们研究了植物品种和温度对靶向科罗拉多马铃薯甲虫（Leptinotarsa decemlineata Say，鞘翅目：叶甲科）幼虫肌动蛋白的杀虫双链RNA（dsRNA）功效的影响程度。马铃薯品种对dsRNA处理的幼虫的存活率或基因沉默没有显著影响，这表明至少在实验室条件下，该功效在不同马铃薯品种间是一致的。温度确实会影响RNA干扰功效，当在较低温度下进行dsRNA处理时，基因沉默和死亡率都会降低。在用dsRNA喂食3天后，所有温度下均出现了基因沉默，但在30°C时的敲低效率为62%，在18°C时为35%。不同温度下的eRNAi功效与核心RNA干扰基因的转录水平无关，这表明其他机制导致了所观察到的效应。总体而言，这些结果表明环境条件会影响杀虫eRNAi的功效，并可能影响昆虫对这些技术产生抗性的速率。
