TY  - JOUR
AU  - Gaeta, Robert T. 
AU  - Bahaji, Abdellatif 
AU  - Polack, Glenda W. 
AU  - Calderón-Urrea, Alejandro 
PY  - 2010
TI  - Effects of ced-9 dsRNA on Caenorhabditis elegans and Meloidogyne incognita
JF  - American Journal of Agricultural and Biological Sciences
VL  - 6
IS  - 1
DO  - 10.3844/ajabssp.2011.19.28
UR  - https://thescipub.com/abstract/ajabssp.2011.19.28
AB  - Abstract: Problem Statement: In metazoans Programmed Cell Death (PCD) is essential for proper
development. Suppression of PCD is needed to guarantee cell survival and in the nematode
Caenorhabditis elegans the regulation of PCD is accomplished by the function of the ced-9 gene.
Approach: In this work the use of double stranded RNA (dsRNA) to knock-down ced-9 gene function
was tested as means to induce PCD. Results: Our results indicate that dsRNA targeting the cell death
protection gene ced-9 is effective at decreasing the fecundity of C. elegans by up to 21%. The
decreased fecundity correlated with an increased presence of cell corpses in developing embryos.
Endogenous ced-9 transcript levels were reduced in progeny of ced-3 mutant nematodes fed bacteria
expressing ced-9 dsRNA. These data suggest that nematode fecundity can be reduced by ingestion and
exposure to dsRNAs targeting regulation of the cell death pathway. In an attempt to determine if plant
parasitic nematodes are susceptible to the targeting of the PCD regulatory pathway we exposed
Meloidogyne incognita, a plant parasitic nematode, to ced-9 dsRNA; here we show that this exposure
results in decreased gall formation in the tobacco plants. Conclusion/Recommendations: Our results
provide the first steps toward using RNAi technologies to attempt nematode control by targeting cell
death pathways. Ongoing research with transgenic plants designed to express dsRNA for ced-9-like
sequences will further test the feasibility of generating plants with RNAi-based resistance to parasitic
nematodes.