Potential applications of gene silencing or RNA interference (RNAi) tocontrol disease and insect pests of date palm

Abstract

Gene silencing or RNA interference (RNAi), a recently-discovered regulatory and defense mechanism in plants,animals and other organisms, has great potential to control plant pests. A gene essential for survival ordevelopment of the plant pest is targeted, and an inverted repeat construct of the gene is transformed intosusceptible host plants. Plant transcription produces a double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), which the plantrecognizes as a foreign molecule. Dicer, the plant's protective ribonuclease enzyme, hydrolyzes the dsRNA tosmall interfering RNAs (siRNAs). The feeding pest ingests the siRNAs, causing the pest's RNAi mechanism tohydrolyze the messenger RNA of its own essential gene. This ?silences? that essential gene in the pest, whicheither dies or is debilitated, and the transgenic plant is resistant to that pest. RNAi, having been shown toprovide resistance against insects (Diabrotica, Helicoverpa), bacteria (Agrobacterium, Staphylococcus),nematodes (Heterodera, Meloidogyne) and parasitic plants (Orobanche, Striga, Triphysaria), should provideeffective, durable resistance to red palm weevil (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus), Bayoud disease (Fusariumoxysporum f. sp. albedinis), Al-Wijam, and other serious pests of date palm.