Fig. 7
From: Synergistic action of the gut microbiota in environmental RNA interference in a leaf beetle
Working model of dsRNA-mediated insect killing. In the gut of the insect, dsRNA can be taken up by midgut epithelial cells and loaded onto the RNAi machinery, thus suppressing expression of the target gene. dsRNA can also induce expression of a gene encoding dsRNase, thereby causing degradation of dsRNA retained in the gut. Gut bacteria can utilize the degradation products of dsRNAs for their growth and translocate from the gut lumen into the hemocoel, thus resulting in accelerated mortality of their host insect