Transcending production limits: A rational platform–barrier co-design framework for next-generation dsRNA biopesticides

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Scalable dsRNA production is essential for RNAi-based pest control, yet production yield alone does not determine field efficacy. Environmental degradation, insufficient pest exposure, and pest-specific variation in RNAi responsiveness collectively limit the conversion of produced dsRNA into effective gene silencing—a problem that yield, purity, and cost metrics cannot capture. This review examines major dsRNA production and delivery architectures for insect pest control and proposes a platform–barrier co-design framework that links platform architecture to four interacting functional capacities: production capacity, protective capacity, exposure-route matching, and physiological compatibility. By evaluating platforms according to the barriers they resolve rather than their biological origin or production method, this framework provides a basis for pest-specific platform selection and integrated multi-barrier design. For RNAi-responsive pests, improved dsRNA durability and exposure-route matching are often sufficient. For refractory or variably responsive pests, effective control typically requires integrated designs combining protection, nuclease avoidance, sustained delivery or uptake enhancement. However, some multi-barrier pest systems may remain difficult to control when degradation, poor uptake, and target-tissue inaccessibility occur simultaneously. Next-generation dsRNA biopesticides should therefore be engineered not simply to maximize dsRNA output, but to maximize its conversion into field-effective RNAi activity under pest- and context-specific conditions.