Can immune gene silencing via dsRNA feeding promote pathogenic viruses to control the globally invasive Argentine ant?

Pest control methods that can target pest species with limited environmental impacts are a conservation and economic priority. Species-specific pest control using RNA interference is a challenging but promising avenue in developing the next generation of pest management. We investigate the feasibility of manipulating a biological invader’s immune system using double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) in order to increase susceptibility to naturally occurring pathogens. We used the invasive Argentine ant as a model, targeting the immunity-associated genes Spaetzle and Dicer-1 with dsRNA. We show that feeding of Spaetzle dsRNA can result in partial target gene silencing for up to 28 days in the laboratory and five days in the field. Dicer-1 dsRNA only resulted in partial gene knockdown after two days in the laboratory. Double-stranded RNA treatments were associated with significant gene expression disruptions across immune pathways in the laboratory and to a lower extent in the field. We observed occas...