Deciphering Insect Immunity: New Insights from RNA Interference

Insect and vertebrate evolutionary histories are separated by more than 500 million years, but the molecular bases of several fundamental biological functions, including innate immune response, seem to have been conserved during metazoan diversification. As a consequence, insects represent good models for gaining new insights into biological basis of human immune-surveillance and pathology. Gene silencing consists in several fruitful techniques, such as the production of loss-of-function mutants and RNA interference. These methods, when applied to models for which molecular databases are available, allow the genetic dissection of several immune-related processes and pathways. In the present review, we will focus on the recent advances on insect immunity derived from the application of gene silencing techniques in Drosophila melanogaster and Anopheles gambiae.