Sugar-Baited Delivery of Small Interfering RNA for Gene Silencing in Adult Mosquitoes
- Keshava Mysore1,2,3,
- Limb K. Hapairai1,2,3,
- Jacob S. Realey1,2,
- Longhua Sun1,2,
- Joseph B. Roethele1,2 and
- Molly Duman-Scheel1,2,4
- 1Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, Indiana University School of Medicine, South Bend, Indiana 46617, USA
- 2Eck Institute for Global Health, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, USA
- ↵4Correspondence: mscheel{at}nd.edu
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↵3 These authors contributed equally to this work.
Abstract
RNA interference (RNAi), an innate regulatory mechanism that is conserved across many eukaryotic species, has been harnessed for experimental gene silencing in many organisms, including mosquitoes. This protocol describes an optimized method for inducing RNAi in adult Aedes aegypti and Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes that involves feeding them a red-colored sugar bait containing small interfering RNA (siRNA). This oral delivery method is less physically disruptive than delivery by subcutaneous injection, and the use of siRNAs (in contrast to long dsRNAs) for RNAi enables the design of molecules that target conserved sites so that gene function can be studied in multiple species. After feeding, the behavioral and morbidity phenotypes that result from the suppression of target gene expression can then be analyzed.
Footnotes
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From the Mosquitoes collection, edited by Laura B. Duvall and Benjamin J. Matthews.
