Crop plants suffer severe yield losses due to the significant damages caused by aphids. RNA interference (RNAi) technology is a versatile and environmentally friendly method for pest management in crop protection. Transgenic plants expressing siRNA/dsRNA and non-transformative methods such as spraying, microinjection, feeding, and a nanocarrier-delivery-mediated RNAi approach have been successfully applied for agricultural insect pest management.
1. Introduction
Cereal plants are frequently attacked sequentially or simultaneously by different aphid species, significantly reducing the quality and quantity of grain. Although chemical control could successfully suppress aphid populations, it has accelerated insecticide resistance development and led to pest resurgence. The overuse of chemical pesticides has led to severe environmental problems and threatens human health
[1]. Therefore, to guarantee food safety and security, it is important and imperative to develop effective pest management approaches to control aphid damage to cereals. Extensive research in recent decades has typically concentrated on further understanding crop–aphid interactions, which has significantly facilitated the development of sustainable aphid management strategies
[2].
RNA interference (RNAi) is a biological process that can be triggered by endogenously expressed or exogenously applied double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs). In this process, transcriptional silencing is induced by directing inhibitory chromatin modifications, and post-transcriptional silencing is induced by decreasing the stability or translation capability of the targeted mRNA
[3][4][5][6][7][8]. The RNAi technique has enormous potential applications in agricultural practices, extending to viruses, bacteria, fungi, nematodes, insects, and plants. RNAi-mediated control has been exploited for several phloem-feeding aphids via targeting essential genes involved in ingestion, molting, development, and fecundity
[9]. With applications in crop protection and production, host-induced gene silencing (HIGS), which employs transgenic plants that have been precisely engineered to produce dsRNA, and spray-induced gene silencing (SIGS), which uses topically applied dsRNA molecules, are being exploited.
2. RNA-Interference-Based Aphid Control in Crop Plants
2.1. Host-Induced Gene Silencing
Host-induced gene silencing is known as a plant-mediated transgenic strategy in which plants are genetically engineered to produce pest- or pathogen-gene-targeting sRNAs or dsRNAs. Subsequently, these RNAs are transported into the pest or pathogen to silence target genes
[10][11].
The HIGS molecular mechanisms in insects may differ from those in fungi. In herbivorous insects, long dsRNAs (including hpRNAs) appear to be absorbed directly from the host. Then, gene silencing is induced via RNAi machinery. In fungi, the existing evidence indicates that gene silencing is induced through taking up siRNAs and microRNAs (miRNAs) produced by the host plant
[12].
Host-induced gene silencing (HIGS) was first reported in
Arabidopsis thaliana. With an expressed hpRNA of a nematode
16D10 gene, transgenic plants exhibited significant resistance against four main root-knot nematode species
[13].
2.2. Host-Induced Gene Silencing Based Protection of Crop Plants from Aphids
Many studies of HIGS focused on M. persicae through various transgenic plants, for example, Arabidopsis thaliana, Nicotiana benthamiana, and Solanum lycopersicon. Some salivary effectors have been identified in aphids, such as MpC002, MpPIntO1 (Mp1), MpPIntO2 (Mp2), and Mp55. The knockdown of these genes reduced the reproduction of aphids, which indicated that these effectors could be selected as potential RNAi targets [14][15][16]. Rack-1 is a conserved multifunctional scaffold protein that was identified as a luteovirus-binding protein in peach aphids. The knockdown of Rack-1 reduced the fecundity of peach aphids [14]. Based on previous studies of Rack1, MpC002, and MpPIntO2, the persistence and transgenerational effects of plant-mediated RNAi were also investigated through transgenic Arabidopsis [17]. Transgenic tomato plant mediated RNAi has been shown to effectively silence the Acetylcholinesterase 1 (Ace1) gene and reduce the fecundity of peach aphids when fed transgenic plants [18].
Most of the studies on
S. avanae were applied by wheat-mediated HIGS. A particle-bombardment-mediated wheat transformation method was used to obtain stable transgenic wheat plants. Feeding on transgenic wheat expressing the carboxylesterase (
CbE E4) gene could suppress the expression level of
CbE E4 in grain aphids and impair larval tolerance to phoxim insecticides
[19]. Silencing the lipase maturation factor 2-like (
lmf2-like) gene reduced the molting number and decreased the survival and reproduction of aphids
[20]. Similarly, the knockdown of the Chitin synthase 1 (
CHS1) gene reduced the molting and survival of aphids
[21]. Silencing the G protein (
Gqα) gene could also reduce reproduction and molting in grain aphids
[22]. Silencing the zinc finger protein (
SaZFP) gene led to high mortality and decreased fecundity of grain aphids. The transgenerational silencing effect was investigated in the successive first to fourth generations
[23].
2.3. Spray-Induced Gene Silencing
Although transgenes are convenient, they are not required for ectopic gene silencing activation in pathogens or pests. According to some research, eukaryotic pests and pathogens, including fungi and nematodes, are able to take up RNAs from the environment [24][25][26]. This phenomenon was defined as ‘Environmental RNAi’, in which the transferred RNAs complemented to the sequence of target genes in the organism can induce highly effective target gene silencing [24][27].
The first evidence of the exogenous application of dsRNA for pest control was in citrus and grapevine trees, in which dsRNA targeting the arginine kinase gene was used to control psyllids and sharpshooter pests [28]. Fusarium graminearum development in barley leaves was suppressed by spraying dsRNA to target the fungal cytochrome P450, establishing the feasibility of spray-induced gene silencing (SIGS) [29].
2.4. Spray-Induced Gene Silencing Based Aphid Control
The delivery of siRNA and dsRNA via nanoparticle carriers is a novel strategy that has been successfully applied in some insect systems
[30][31][32]. The majority of SIGS-based studies employed nanocarrier delivery systems for aphid control.
tor is a carotene dehydrogenase gene that plays an important role in pigmentation in
A. pisum. The branched-chain amino acid transaminase (
bcat) gene is important in branched-chain amino acid metabolism in aphids. An aerosolized siRNA-nanoparticle delivery strategy induced a modest
tor gene knockdown in
A. pisum and a
bcat gene knockdown in
Aphis glycines as well as the associated phenotype. These results indicated that the aerosolized siRNA-nanoparticle method was an effective RNAi delivery system
[33].
2.5. Other Delivery-Method-Mediated Gene Silencing for Aphid Control
Microinjection is an efficient and widely used research method for delivering dsRNAs. The first evidence of successful dsRNA microinjection was applied to silence the
frizzled and
frizzled 2 genes in
Drosophila melanogaster embryos by injecting their corresponding dsRNAs
[34]. Since then, microinjection has become a potential method for delivering dsRNA into various insect species. This method was reported to apply in many aphid species, namely
A. gossypii,
A. pisum,
M. persicae, and
S. avenae. The injection of siRNA-
C002 into pea aphids decreased the transcription level of
C002 [35]. Injections of dsRNAs of different aphid genes that play important roles in aphid sheath formation (
SHP) [36], cuticular waterproofing (
CYP4G51) [37], (E)-b-farnesene (EβF) reception (
ApisOR5,
ApisOBP3, and
ApisOBP7) [38], chitin biosynthesis (
CHS) [39], molting (
ApCCAP and
ApCCAPR) [40], flight musculature formation, and wing extension (
flightin) [41] induced effective target gene silencing.
Feeding was another basic delivery method for aphids because of its less laborious and easier operation. Aphids fed a diet containing synthetic dsRNA were more appliable for target gene knockdown. It was first reported that feeding on
E. coli bacteria expressing dsRNA in
C. elegans conferred silencing effects on the nematode larvae
[42]. In
Aphis citricidus, RNAi was performed by feeding dsRNAs of target genes with citrus leaf through stem dipping. Acetylcholinesterase (
AChE) is an important gene targeted by insecticides based on organophosphates and carbamates. The silencing of two aphid
AChE genes,
Tcace1 and
Tcace2, increased susceptibility to malathion and carbaryl insecticides. Furthermore,
Tcace1 silencing resulted in higher aphid mortality than
Tcace2 silencing, which indicated that
TcAChE1 was essential for
A. citricidus postsynaptic neurotransmission
[43]. A knockdown of Vitellogenin (
Vg) and its receptor (
VgR) had a negative impact on embryonic and postembryonic development, which led to nymph–adult transition delay, a longer pre-reproductive period, and a shorter reproductive period
[44]. Cuticle protein is a primary target in insect development and molting. The silencing of the cuticle protein 19 (
CP19) gene in
A. citricidus led to aphid mortality
[45].
It has also been demonstrated that mechanical inoculation can help deliver dsRNA and induce RNAi by spreading dsRNA with soft sterile brushes and gentle rubbing inoculation
[46][47]. The molecules were rapidly absorbed by tomato plants and were ingested by peach aphids (
M. persicae) when the tomato leaves were gently rubbed with dsRNA solution
[48]. With the use of a nanocarrier and detergent, a novel dsRNA formulation was exploited, which can quickly penetrate through the body wall of
A. glycines and effectively suppress gene expression. This suggests that transdermal dsRNA delivery could be developed as a potential SIGS-based aphid control strategy. Hemocytin (
Hem) is an important factor in the hemocytes and fat bodies of insects, which might regulate aphid population density. When spreading a dsRNA-
HEM nanocarrier/detergent formulation on
A. glycines, the expression level of
hemocytin was efficiently silenced, which impaired the survival and fecundity of aphids and suppressed aphid population growth
[49].