RNAi-Based Biocontrol Products: Market Status, Regulatory Aspects, and Risk Assessment

Schutter, Kristof De; Taning, Clauvis Nji Tizi; Daele, Lenny Van; Damme, Els J. M. Van; Dubruel, Peter; Smagghe, Guy

doi:10.3389/finsc.2021.818037

Cited by 40 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 51 publications

(55 reference statements)

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“…Specifically, dssnf7 is causing the death of the insect by impairing the autophagy process, which is evident in the accumulation of ubiquitinated proteins in the larval tissues after ingestion of dssnf7 [77]. We believe that the low concentrations and high mortality with dssnf7, together with the high RNAi efficacy and its species-specific mode of action [60,[79][80][81]] make a case for the utilization of the approach in environmentally safe pest management solutions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The power of RNAi in pest management can be utilized in various ways such as spraying, irrigation, injection (SIGS, spray-induced gene-silencing), and transgenic plants expressing dsRNA (HIGS, host-induced gene-silencing) [37,81]. The most cost-effective delivery method should take into account the behavior of the target pest, the economics of delivery, and the effectiveness of the method.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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First Evidence of Feeding-Induced RNAi in Banana Weevil via Exogenous Application of dsRNA

Mwaka

Christiaens

Bwesigye³

et al. 2021

Insects

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Banana weevil (Cosmopolites sordidus) is the most devastating pest of banana and plantain worldwide, yet current control measures are neither effective, sustainable, nor environmentally sound, and no resistant farmer-preferred cultivars are known to date. In this paper, we examined the ability to induce RNA interference (RNAi) in the banana weevil via feeding. We first developed an agar- and banana corm (rhizome) flour-based artificial diet in a multi-well plate setup that allowed the banana weevils to complete their life cycle from egg through the larval instars to the pupal stage in an average period of 53 days. Adults emerged about 20 days later. The artificial diet allowed the tunneling and burrowing habits of the larvae and successful metamorphosis up to adult eclosion. Adding dsRNA for laccase2 to the artificial diet resulted in albino phenotypes, confirming gene-silencing. Finally, C. sordidus was fed with dsRNA against a selection of essential target genes: snf7, rps13, mad1, vha-a, vha-d, and lgl for a period of 45 days. 100% mortality within 9–16 days was realized with dssnf7, dsrps13, and dsmad1 at 200 ng/mL artificial diet, and this corresponded to a strong reduction in gene expression. Feeding the dsRNA targeting the two vha genes resulted in 100% mortality after about 3–4 weeks, while treatment with dslgl resulted in no mortality above the dsgfp-control and the water-control. Our results have implications for the development of RNAi approaches for managing important crop pests, in that banana weevils can be controlled based on the silencing of essential target genes as snf7, rps13, and mad1. They also highlight the need for research into the development of RNAi for banana protection, eventually the engineering of host-induced gene-silencing (HIGS) cultivars, given the high RNAi efficacy and its species-specific mode of action, adding the RNAi approach to the armory of integrated pest management (IPM).

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

First Evidence of Feeding-Induced RNAi in Banana Weevil via Exogenous Application of dsRNA

Mwaka

Christiaens

Bwesigye³

et al. 2021

Insects

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“…RNAi cultivars, and all other transgenic crops, fall within the definition of “living modified organisms” according to the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity under its Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety for transboundary movement. While current restrictions prevent field cultivation of transgenic RNAi cultivars in European Union (EU) countries, there is growing advocacy from RNAi experts for EU policymakers to re-think legislation and adapt to sustainability needs ( Mezzetti et al, 2020 ; Taning et al, 2020 ; De Schutter et al, 2022 ). A well-known implementation of transgenic RNAi-based crop protection is the bioengineering and cultivation of RNAi papaya in Hawaii, whereby a transgene was introduced into the papaya genome for control of papaya ringspot virus.…”

Section: Rnai: Market and Utilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Uniting RNAi Technology and Conservation Biocontrol to Promote Global Food Security and Agrobiodiversity

Willow

Cook

Veromann

et al. 2022

Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.

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Habitat loss and fragmentation, and the effects of pesticides, contribute to biodiversity losses and unsustainable food production. Given the United Nation’s (UN’s) declaration of this decade as the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, we advocate combining conservation biocontrol-enhancing practices with the use of RNA interference (RNAi) pesticide technology, the latter demonstrating remarkable target-specificity via double-stranded (ds)RNA’s sequence-specific mode of action. This specificity makes dsRNA a biosafe candidate for integration into the global conservation initiative. Our interdisciplinary perspective conforms to the UN’s declaration, and is facilitated by the Earth BioGenome Project, an effort valuable to RNAi development given its utility in providing whole-genome sequences, allowing identification of genetic targets in crop pests, and potentially relevant sequences in non-target organisms. Interdisciplinary studies bringing together biocontrol-enhancing techniques and RNAi are needed, and should be examined for various crop‒pest systems to address this global problem.

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“…Unlike, SARS-CoV-2 there are currently no commercially available vaccines or treatments for bee viruses. Although there have been initiatives with the use of dsRNA to reduce the viral titer by triggering the RNAi immune response [ 36 , 91 , 92 , 93 ], products are not commercially available [ 94 ]. Viral evolution is hence, not ‘disturbed’ by vaccination in bees.…”

Section: Viruses and Their Variantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical View on the Importance of Host Defense Strategies on Virus Distribution of Bee Viruses: What Can We Learn from SARS-CoV-2 Variants?

Piot

Smagghe

2022

Viruses

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Bees, both wild and domesticated ones, are hosts to a plethora of viruses, with most of them infecting a wide range of bee species and genera. Although viral discovery and research on bee viruses date back over 50 years, the last decade is marked by a surge of new studies, new virus discoveries, and reports on viral transmission in and between bee species. This steep increase in research on bee viruses was mainly initiated by the global reports on honeybee colony losses and the worldwide wild bee decline, where viruses are regarded as one of the main drivers. While the knowledge gained on bee viruses has significantly progressed in a short amount of time, we believe that integration of host defense strategies and their effect on viral dynamics in the multi-host viral landscape are important aspects that are currently still missing. With the large epidemiological dataset generated over the last two years on the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the role of these defense mechanisms in shaping viral dynamics has become eminent. Integration of these dynamics in a multi-host system would not only greatly aid the understanding of viral dynamics as a driver of wild bee decline, but we believe bee pollinators and their viruses provide an ideal system to study the multi-host viruses and their epidemiology.

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RNAi-Based Biocontrol Products: Market Status, Regulatory Aspects, and Risk Assessment

Cited by 40 publications

References 51 publications

First Evidence of Feeding-Induced RNAi in Banana Weevil via Exogenous Application of dsRNA

First Evidence of Feeding-Induced RNAi in Banana Weevil via Exogenous Application of dsRNA

Uniting RNAi Technology and Conservation Biocontrol to Promote Global Food Security and Agrobiodiversity

Critical View on the Importance of Host Defense Strategies on Virus Distribution of Bee Viruses: What Can We Learn from SARS-CoV-2 Variants?

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