Comparative Analysis of RNAi-Based Methods to Down-Regulate Expression of Two Genes Expressed at Different Levels in Myzus persicae

With the increasing availability of aphid genomic data, it is necessary to develop robust functional validation methods to evaluate the role of specific aphid genes. This work represents the first study in which five different techniques, all based on RNA interference and on oral acquisition of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), were developed to silence two genes, <i>ALY</i> and <i>Eph</i>, potentially involved in polerovirus transmission by aphids. Efficient silencing of only <i>Eph</i> transcripts, which are less abundant than those of <i>ALY</i>, could be achieved by feeding aphids on transgenic <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i> expressing an RNA hairpin targeting <i>Eph</i>, on <i>Nicotiana benthamiana</i> infected with a <i>Tobacco rattle virus</i> (TRV)-Eph recombinant virus, or on in vitro-synthesized <i>Eph</i>-targeting dsRNA. These experiments showed that the silencing efficiency may differ greatly between genes and that aphid gut cells seem to be preferentially affected by the silencing mechanism after oral acquisition of dsRNA. In addition, the use of plants infected with recombinant TRV proved to be a promising technique to silence aphid genes as it does not require plant transformation. This work highlights the need to pursue development of innovative strategies to reproducibly achieve reduction of expression of aphid genes.