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RNAi in Insects: A Revolution in Fundamental Research and Pest Control Applications

In this editorial for the Special Issue on ‘RNAi in insect pest control’, three important applications of RNA interference (RNAi) in insects are briefly discussed and linked to the different studies published in this Special Issue. The discovery of the RNAi mechanism revolutionized entomological res...

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Autores principales: Christiaens, Olivier, Niu, Jinzhi, Nji Tizi Taning, Clauvis
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7411770/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32635402
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects11070415
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author Christiaens, Olivier
Niu, Jinzhi
Nji Tizi Taning, Clauvis
author_facet Christiaens, Olivier
Niu, Jinzhi
Nji Tizi Taning, Clauvis
author_sort Christiaens, Olivier
collection PubMed
description In this editorial for the Special Issue on ‘RNAi in insect pest control’, three important applications of RNA interference (RNAi) in insects are briefly discussed and linked to the different studies published in this Special Issue. The discovery of the RNAi mechanism revolutionized entomological research, as it presented researchers with a tool to knock down genes, which is easily applicable in a wide range of insect species. Furthermore, RNAi also provides crop protection with a novel and promising pest control mode-of-action. The sequence-dependent nature allows RNAi-based control strategies to be highly species selective and the active molecule, a natural biological molecule known as double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), has a short environmental persistence. However, more research is needed to investigate different cellular and physiological barriers, such as cellular uptake and dsRNA degradation in the digestive system in insects, in order to provide efficient control methods against a wide range of insect pest species. Finally, the RNAi pathway is an important part of the innate antiviral immune defence of insects, and could even lead to applications targeting viruses in beneficial insects such as honeybees in the future.
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spelling pubmed-74117702020-08-25 RNAi in Insects: A Revolution in Fundamental Research and Pest Control Applications Christiaens, Olivier Niu, Jinzhi Nji Tizi Taning, Clauvis Insects Editorial In this editorial for the Special Issue on ‘RNAi in insect pest control’, three important applications of RNA interference (RNAi) in insects are briefly discussed and linked to the different studies published in this Special Issue. The discovery of the RNAi mechanism revolutionized entomological research, as it presented researchers with a tool to knock down genes, which is easily applicable in a wide range of insect species. Furthermore, RNAi also provides crop protection with a novel and promising pest control mode-of-action. The sequence-dependent nature allows RNAi-based control strategies to be highly species selective and the active molecule, a natural biological molecule known as double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), has a short environmental persistence. However, more research is needed to investigate different cellular and physiological barriers, such as cellular uptake and dsRNA degradation in the digestive system in insects, in order to provide efficient control methods against a wide range of insect pest species. Finally, the RNAi pathway is an important part of the innate antiviral immune defence of insects, and could even lead to applications targeting viruses in beneficial insects such as honeybees in the future. MDPI 2020-07-03 /pmc/articles/PMC7411770/ /pubmed/32635402 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects11070415 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Editorial
Christiaens, Olivier
Niu, Jinzhi
Nji Tizi Taning, Clauvis
RNAi in Insects: A Revolution in Fundamental Research and Pest Control Applications
title RNAi in Insects: A Revolution in Fundamental Research and Pest Control Applications
title_full RNAi in Insects: A Revolution in Fundamental Research and Pest Control Applications
title_fullStr RNAi in Insects: A Revolution in Fundamental Research and Pest Control Applications
title_full_unstemmed RNAi in Insects: A Revolution in Fundamental Research and Pest Control Applications
title_short RNAi in Insects: A Revolution in Fundamental Research and Pest Control Applications
title_sort rnai in insects: a revolution in fundamental research and pest control applications
topic Editorial
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7411770/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32635402
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects11070415
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