Oral RNAi for Gene Silencing in Mosquitoes: From the Bench to the Field
- 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) has played a key role in the field of insect functional genomics, a discipline that has enhanced the study of developmental, evolutionary, physiological, and molecular biological phenomena in a wide variety of insects, including disease vector mosquitoes. Here we introduce a recently optimized RNAi procedure in which adult mosquitoes are fed with a colored sugar bait containing small interfering RNA (siRNA). This procedure effectively and economically leads to gene silencing, is technically straightforward, and has been successfully used to characterize a number of genes in adult mosquitoes. We also discuss how, in addition to laboratory applications, this oral RNAi procedure might one day be used in the field for controlling insect pests.
Footnotes
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From the Mosquitoes collection, edited by Laura B. Duvall and Benjamin J. Matthews.
