RNAi Knockdown of a Salivary Transcript Leading to Lethality in the Pea Aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum

Abstract Injection of siRNA (small interfering RNA) into parthenogenetic adult pea aphids (Acyrthosiphon pisum) is shown here to lead to depletion of a target salivary gland transcript. The siRNA was generated from double stranded RNA that covered most of the open reading frame of the transcript, which we have called Coo2. The Coo2 transcript level decreases dramatically over a 3-day period after injection of siRNA. With a lag of 1 to 2 days, the siCoo2-RNA injected insects died, on average 8 days before the death of control insects injected with siRNA for green fluorescent protein. It appears, therefore, that siRNA injections into adults will be a useful tool in studying the roles of individual transcripts in aphid salivary glands and suggests that siCoo2-RNA injections can be a useful positive control in such studies.