RNAi Efficiency through dsRNA Injection Is Enhanced by Knockdown of dsRNA Nucleases in the Fall Webworm, Hyphantria cunea (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae)

RNA interference (RNAi) technology is a promising approach used in pest control. The efficiency of RNAi varies considerably among different insect species, and growing evidence suggests that degradation of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) prior to uptake is an important factor that limits RNAi efficiency in insects. Our recent work on fall webworm (Hyphantria cunea), an important invasive pest in China, showed a relatively low silencing efficiency of RNAi through dsRNA injection, which is considered the most feasible dsRNA delivery method for inducing RNAi, and the factors involved in the mechanism remain unknown. Herein, we first detected the dsRNA-degrading activity in the hemolymph and gut content of H. cunea in ex vivo assays and observed rapid degradation of dsRNA, especially in the hemolymph, which was complete within only 10 min. To determine whether dsRNA degradation could contribute to the low effectiveness of RNAi in H. cunea, four dsRNA nuclease (dsRNase) genes, HcdsRNase1, HcdsRNase2, HcdsRNase3, and HcdsRNase4, were identified by homology searching against the H. cunea transcriptome database, and their transcript levels were subsequently investigated in different tissues, developmental stages, and after dsRNA injection. Our results show that HcdsRNases are highly expressed mainly in gut tissues and hemolymph, and the expression of HcdsRNase3 and HcdsRNase4 were significantly upregulated by dsGFP induction. RNAi-of-RNAi studies, using HcCht5 as a reporter gene, demonstrated that silencing HcdsRNase3 and HcdsRNase4 significantly increases RNAi efficacy via dsHcCht5 injection, and co-silencing these two HcdsRNase genes results in a more significant improvement in efficacy. These results confirm that the RNAi efficacy in H. cunea through dsRNA injection is certainly impaired by dsRNase activity, and that blocking HcdsRNases could potentially improve RNAi, providing a reference for related studies on insects where RNAi has low efficiency.