Functional analysis

Genomic resources are the first descriptive data for deciphering specific physiological and developmental mechanisms in aphids. Transcriptomic (RNA-Seq) on mRNA and non-coding RNA, as well as epigenetic studies (DNA methylation, histone modifications in the chromatin) represent those descriptors, and data integration is often required to construct new hypotheses on complex controlled mechanisms of organism biology. This needs collaboration with computer sciences and mathematics to construct models.

The final demonstration of the key role of a candidate gene needs the development of functional analyses that aim at modifying the gene expression and analyse whether or not a phenotype is modified in parallel. Today, RNAi experiments are available for different aphid species, with different successes depending on the species, the gene of interest and the organs when and where it is expressed. In 2019, the directed mutagenesis using CRISPR-Cas9 has been developed in the pea aphid and opens new possibilities for efficient functional analyses in aphids.