By Jordan Strickler
A University of Kentucky Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment (CAFE) forest entomologist is closing in on a pest management strategy that could give landowners, cities and forest managers a highly targeted alternative to conventional insecticides — one that kills invasive beetles by silencing their own genes and leaves surrounding wildlife untouched.
Lynne Rieske-Kinney, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Entomology, has spent roughly a decade developing RNA interference (RNAi) as a tool against two of the most damaging forest pests in the eastern United States, the emerald ash borer and the southern pine beetle. Her current work is supported by a cooperative agreement awarded in 2024 and running through 2027.
“We can definitely kill insects in the lab, in a petri dish,” Rieske-Kinney said. “The challenge is scaling it up to a usable technology, and that’s what we’re focusing on now.”
RNAi exploits a natural cellular defense. Researchers custom-design a double-stranded RNA molecule that matches a short sequence — 16 to 21 base pairs long — in a specific gene of a target insect. When the insect ingests it, its cells mistake the molecule for a virus and shut down production of the corresponding protein. If that protein is essential, the insect dies.
Because the match must be nearly exact across billions of possible base-pair combinations, the treatment is remarkably species-specific.
“If you design a double-stranded RNA for a specific insect, the chances of it affecting anything else is very, very low,” Rieske-Kinney said.
Source : uky.edu