The Combination of and Its Engineered Strain Expressing dsRNA Increases the Toxicity against .

RNA interference (RNAi) has been developed and used as an emerging strategy for pest management. Here, an entomopathogen () was used to express the dsRNA for the control of . A vector containing a 325-bp fragment of the conserved region of arginine kinase gene () flanking in two ends with the promoter Pro3α was developed and transferred into 8010 and BMB171, and consequently engineered strains 8010AKi and BMB171AKi expressing dsRNA of were developed. The two engineered strains were separately mixed with 8010 in a series of ratios, and then fed to the larvae. We found that 8010:8010AKi of 9:1 and 8010:BMB171AKi of 7:3 caused a higher mortality than 8010. expression levels in the individuals treated with the mixtures, 8010AKi and BMB171Aki, were lower than that in the control. The intrinsic rate of increase () and net reproductive rate () of the population treated with 8010:8010AKi of 9:1 were lower than those of the population treated with 8010 or 8010AKi. We developed a -mediated insect RNAi for the control of and demonstrated a practical approach to integrating the entomopathogen with RNAi technique for the pest management.