부산대학교 도서관

Simple Summary: Mosquito-borne infectious diseases threaten millions of people worldwide, and it is critical that we identify new methods for controlling these insects. We recently developed a new class of mosquito insecticides that consists of yeasts which produce interfering RNA that is custom-designed to turn off mosquito genes yet does not hurt other organisms. Here, we test a newly optimized robust yeast strain which is suitable for industry-scale yeast production. Following heat inactivation and drying, the yeast was shipped to St. Augustine, Trinidad and Bangkok, Thailand, where it was evaluated in outdoor studies performed in tropical settings. The yeast effectively killed a variety of different types of mosquito larvae that died following yeast consumption. It could also be supplied to adult mosquitoes in a sugar bait solution, resulting in high levels of mosquito death. The yeast killed mosquitoes more quickly in outdoor experiments than in laboratory trials. These promising results indicate that yeast insecticides could one day be used globally as a new means of eco-friendly mosquito control and disease prevention. Eco-friendly new mosquito control innovations are critical for the ongoing success of global mosquito control programs. In this study, Sh.463_56.10R, a robust RNA interference (RNAi) yeast insecticide strain that is suitable for scaled fermentation, was evaluated under semi-field conditions. Inactivated and dried Sh.463_56.10R yeast induced significant mortality of field strain Aedes aegypti, Aedes albopictus, and Culex quinquefasciatus larvae in semi-field larvicide trials conducted outdoors in St. Augustine, Trinidad, where 100% of the larvae were dead within 24 h. The yeast was also stably suspended in commercial bait and deployed as an active ingredient in miniature attractive targeted sugar bait (ATSB) station sachets. The yeast ATSB induced high levels of Aedes and Culex mosquito morbidity in semi-field trials conducted in Trinidad, West Indies, as well as in Bangkok, Thailand, in which the consumption of the yeast resulted in adult female mosquito death within 48 h, faster than what was observed in laboratory trials. These findings support the pursuit of large-scale field trials to further evaluate the Sh.463_56.10R insecticide, a member of a promising new class of species-specific RNAi insecticides that could help combat insecticide resistance and support effective mosquito control programs worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]