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Insecticidal effects of dsRNA targeting the Diap1 gene in dipteran pests

Powell, Michelle; Pyati, Prashant; Cao, Min; Bell, Howard; Gatehouse, John A.; Fitches, Elaine

Insecticidal effects of dsRNA targeting the Diap1 gene in dipteran pests Thumbnail


Authors

Michelle Powell

Prashant Pyati

Min Cao

Howard Bell

John A. Gatehouse



Abstract

The Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) gene Diap1 encodes a protein referred to as DIAP1 (DrosophilaInhibitor of Apoptosis Protein 1) that acts to supress apoptosis in “normal” cells in the fly. In this study we investigate the use of RNA interference (RNAi) to control two dipteran pests, Musca domestica and Delia radicum, by disrupting the control of apoptosis. Larval injections of 125–500 ng of Diap1 dsRNA resulted in dose-dependent mortality which was shown to be attributable to down-regulation of target mRNA. Insects injected with Diap1 dsRNA have approx. 1.5-2-fold higher levels of caspase activity than controls 24 hours post injection, providing biochemical evidence that inhibition of apoptotic activity by the Diap1 gene product has been decreased. By contrast adults were insensitive to injected dsRNA. Oral delivery failed to induce RNAi effects and we suggest this is attributable to degradation of ingested dsRNA by intra and extracellular RNAses. Non-target effects were demonstrated via mortality and down-regulation of Diap1 mRNA levels in M. domestica larvae injected with D. radicum Diap1 dsRNA, despite the absence of 21 bp identical sequence regions in the dsRNA. Here we show that identical 15 bp regions in dsRNA are sufficient to trigger non-target RNAi effects.

Citation

Powell, M., Pyati, P., Cao, M., Bell, H., Gatehouse, J. A., & Fitches, E. (2017). Insecticidal effects of dsRNA targeting the Diap1 gene in dipteran pests. Scientific Reports, 7(1), Article 15147. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-15534-y

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 2, 2017
Online Publication Date Nov 9, 2017
Publication Date Nov 9, 2017
Deposit Date Nov 29, 2017
Publicly Available Date Nov 29, 2017
Journal Scientific Reports
Publisher Nature Research
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 7
Issue 1
Article Number 15147
DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-15534-y

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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.




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