Effects of ced-9 dsRNA on Caenorhabditis elegans and Meloidogyne incognita | Science Publications

American Journal of Agricultural and Biological Sciences

Robert T. Gaeta¹  Abdellatif Bahaji¹  Alejandro Calderon-Urrea¹  Glenda W. Polack¹ 

关键词: Gene silencing;    Programmed Cell Death (PCD);    Caenorhabditis elegans;    Meloidogyne incognita;    ectopic cell death;    RNA interference (RNAi);    E. coli;    Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP);    plant parasitic nematodes;   

DOI  :  10.3844/ajabssp.2011.19.28

学科分类：农业科学（综合）

来源: Science Publications

【 摘 要 】

Problem Statement: In metazoans Programmed Cell Death (PCD) is essential for properdevelopment. Suppression of PCD is needed to guarantee cell survival and in the nematodeCaenorhabditis elegans the regulation of PCD is accomplished by the function of the ced-9 gene.Approach: In this work the use of double stranded RNA (dsRNA) to knock-down ced-9 gene functionwas tested as means to induce PCD. Results: Our results indicate that dsRNA targeting the cell deathprotection gene ced-9 is effective at decreasing the fecundity of C. elegans by up to 21%. Thedecreased fecundity correlated with an increased presence of cell corpses in developing embryos.Endogenous ced-9 transcript levels were reduced in progeny of ced-3 mutant nematodes fed bacteriaexpressing ced-9 dsRNA. These data suggest that nematode fecundity can be reduced by ingestion andexposure to dsRNAs targeting regulation of the cell death pathway. In an attempt to determine if plantparasitic nematodes are susceptible to the targeting of the PCD regulatory pathway we exposedMeloidogyne incognita, a plant parasitic nematode, to ced-9 dsRNA; here we show that this exposureresults in decreased gall formation in the tobacco plants. Conclusion/Recommendations: Our resultsprovide the first steps toward using RNAi technologies to attempt nematode control by targeting celldeath pathways. Ongoing research with transgenic plants designed to express dsRNA for ced-9-likesequences will further test the feasibility of generating plants with RNAi-based resistance to parasiticnematodes.

【 授权许可】

Unknown