Silencing arginine kinase / integrin β1 subunit by transgenic plant expressing dsRNA inhibits the development and survival of Plutella xylostella.

Plutella xylostella is a devastating agricultural insect pest of cruciferous plants including crops. Plant-mediated RNAi is currently being developed for plant protection. In this study, we investigated the response of P. xylostella exposed to transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana plants that expressed dsRNA targeting P. xylostella genes of arginine kinase (PxAK) and integrin β₁ subunit (Pxβ).

Transgenic plants producing dsRNAs of 384-bp fragment of PxAK (dsAK plants), 497-bp fragment of Pxβ (dsβ plants), and 881 bp of the combination of both genes (dsAK-β plants) were generated and verified. Insect bioassay with these transgenic plants showed that the development of P. xylostella was affected causing longer developmental time, and lower pupal weight and pupation rate. P. xylostella mortality rates were 25.0% when exposed to dsAK plants, 22.5% with dsβ plants, and 30.0% with dsAK-β plants, which were all higher than 7.5% for wild-type plant. PxAK and Pxβ in P. xylostella were suppressed by 26.6% - 79.7% at the transcription level by the transgenic plants.These results suggest that plant-mediated RNAi targeting single gene or both of PxAK and Pxβ may have the potential to control P. xylostella. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.