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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Gainesville, Florida » Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology » Mosquito and Fly Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #316610
Research Project: Biting Arthropod Surveillance and Control

Location: Mosquito and Fly Research

Title: Silencing trehalose-6-phosphate synthase incapacitates adult mosquitoes by interfering with the biosynthetic pathway for flight fuel

Author
item VAIDYANATHAN, RAJEEV - Sri International
item ESTEP, ALDEN - Navy And Marine Corps Public Health Center (NMCPHC)
item Becnel, James
item MOORE, JULIA - Sri International
item TALCOTT, CAROLYN - Sri International

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/2/2015
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Trehalose is a disaccharide comprised of two glucose molecules. It is the main blood sugar of insects and is essential for flight. Trehalose is synthesized by two enzymes: trehalose-6-phosphate synthase (T6PS) converts glucose-6-phosphate to trehalose-6-phosphate, and trehalose-6-phosphate phosphatase (T6PP) dephosphorylates trehalose-6-phosphate to form trehalose. Because trehalose is the principal carbon source for flight energy and is absent in mammals, the biosynthetic pathway for trehalose is an attractive target for novel insecticide chemistry. We found that microinjection of small interfering RNA (siRNA) of T6PS – but not T6PP – rendered 80-100% of female Aedes aegypti incapable of righting themselves from an inverted position for 6 hours and induced flightlessness in >60% for up to 12 h. Ablation of T6PS resulted in 30% mortality after 24 h. We will discuss the potential control benefit of flightlessness even in the absence of mortality. These results support T6PS inhibition as a rational mosquito control strategy.