Associate professor University of Southern Mississippi Hattiesburg, Mississippi
RNA interference (RNAi) is a method of gene silencing which is increasingly being considered to control pest insects. It comprises three main pathways of small RNA biogenesis, including micro RNAs (miRNAs), short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs). Though RNAi pathways are well characterized in the model fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, efficacy is highly particular by species, requiring careful selection by the researcher of loci of interest for RNAi applications. Various computational tools have been developed for this purpose; however, no comprehensive software exists to convert sequencing data from a locus of interest into figures and statistics which indicate the nature of said locus. To address this need, we developed an easy-to-use and efficient R package which can be used to characterize pre-selected loci, which will allow a researcher to choose the appropriate RNAi tactic for their target species. Here, we demonstrate the capability of the software to annotate small RNA loci in multiple species of common pests from the order Hemiptera.
