The sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) is an invasive pest in the Laurentian Great Lakes. Current pest control programs for sea lamprey are expensive and can produce off-target effects. RNA interference (RNAi) based technologies have the potential to augment existing sea lamprey control programs. In this study, sea lamprey embryos and larvae (10-100 mm) were treated with small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) targeting housekeeping genes (β actin, α actinin, calmodulin, elongation factor 1α, splicing factor 1 and γ tubulin) and gene expression was measured. Three of the siRNA embryo treatments (α-actinin, calmodulin, splicing factor 1) produced significant knockdown and increased mortality while treatment with tubulin siRNA produced only knockdown. Larval siRNA treatments produced knockdown of four genes (α-actinin, calmodulin, elongation factor 1α, splicing factor 1) and increased mortality with tubulin-siRNA treatments. Differential effects of siRNA treatment across life stage and gene target are discussed. These results suggest that siRNAs have potential uses as species-specific pesticides in sea lamprey.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:MWU.1993/16593 |
| Date | 12 February 2013 |
| Creators | Heath, George |
| Contributors | Docker, Margaret (Biological Sciences) Whyard, Steve (Biological Sciences), Civetta, Alberto (Biochem. and Medical Genetics) Marcus, Jeffrey (Biological Sciences) |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Detected Language | English |
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