Methods and compositions are provided which employ a silencing element
that, when ingested by a pest, such as a pest from the Lepidoptera order,
they are capable of decreasing the expression of a target sequence in the
pest. In specific embodiments, the decrease in expression of the target
sequence controls the pest and thereby the methods and compositions are
capable of limiting damage to a plant. The present invention provides
target polynucleotides encoding polypeptides from specific protein
families and various target polynucleotides set forth in SEQ ID NOS: 1,
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21,
22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39,
40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, or 50 or active variants and
fragments thereof, wherein a decrease in expression of one or more the
sequences in the target pest controls the pest (i.e., has insecticidal
activity). Further provided are silencing elements which when ingested by
the pest decrease the level of the target polypeptide and thereby control
the pest. In specific embodiment, the pest is Spodoptera frugiperda.
Plants, plant part, bacteria and other host cells comprising the
silencing elements or an active variant or fragment thereof of the
invention are also provided.