An RNA Interference Tool to Silence Genes in Sarcoptes scabiei Eggs

In a quest for new interventions against scabies—a highly significant skin disease of mammals, caused by a parasitic mite Sarcoptes scabiei—we are focusing on finding new intervention targets. RNA interference (RNAi) could be an efficient functional genomics approach to identify such targets. The RNAi pathway is present in S. scabiei and operational in the female adult mite, but other developmental stages have not been assessed. Identifying potential intervention targets in the egg stage is particularly important because current treatments do not kill this latter stage. Here, we established an RNAi tool to silence single-copy genes in S. scabiei eggs. Using sodium hypochlorite pre-treatment, we succeeded in rendering the eggshell permeable to dsRNA without affecting larval hatching. We optimised the treatment of eggs with gene-specific dsRNAs to three single-copy target genes (designated Ss-Cof, Ss-Ddp, and Ss-Nan) which significantly and repeatedly suppressed transcription by ~66.6%, 74.3%, and 84.1%, respectively. Although no phenotypic alterations were detected in dsRNA-treated eggs for Ss-Cof and Ss-Nan, the silencing of Ss-Ddp resulted in a 38% reduction of larval hatching. This RNAi method is expected to provide a useful tool for larger-scale functional genomic investigations for the identification of essential genes as potential drug targets.