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Background  Galactofuranose is an essential cell surface component present in bacteria, fungi and several nematodes such as  Caenorhabditis  spp.,  Brugia  spp.,  Onchocerca  spp. and  Strongyloides  spp. This sugar maintains the integrity of parasite surface and is essential for virulence. UDP-Galactopyranose mutase ( bmugm ) plays a key role in Gal f  biosynthesis by catalyzing conversion of UDP-Galactopyranose into UDP-galactofuranose and knockout studies of the gene in  Leishmania major ,  Mycobacterium  and  Aspergillus fumigatus  displayed attenuated virulence while RNA interference study in  C. elegans  exhibited detrimental effects. Presence of UGM in several prokaryotic and eukaryotic microbial pathogens and its absence in higher eukaryotes renders it an attractive drug target. In the present study, RNA interference studies have been carried out to validate  bmugm  as an antifilarial drug target.    Methods  RNA interference studies using two different sequences of siRNAs targeting  bmugm  were carried out. The in vitro gene silencing of adult  B. malayi  parasites was undertaken to observe the effects on parasites. Infective larvae were also exposed to siRNAs and their in vivo development in jirds was observed.    Results  The in vitro gene silencing induced by siRNA1 and 2 individually as well as together knocked down the  bmugm gene  expression causing impaired viability of the exposed worms along with extremely reduced motility, abridged microfilarial release and adversely effected embryogenesis. The combinatorial in vitro gene silencing revealed marginally better results than both the siRNAs individually. Thus, infective larvae were treated with siRNA combination which showed downregulation of  bmugm  mRNA expression resulting into sluggish larval movements and/or death. The siRNA-treated actively motile larvae when inoculated intraperitoneally into jirds demonstrated highly reduced transformation of these larvae into adult worms with detrimental effects on embryogenesis. The effects of gene silencing were long-lasting as the adult worms developed from siRNA-treated larvae showed noticeable knockdown in the target gene expression.    Conclusions  The validation studies undertaken here conclude that  bmugm  is essential for the proper development and survival of the parasite and support its candidature as an antifilarial drug target.    Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13071-017-1967-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

parasites and vectors

RNA interference mediated knockdown of Brugia malayi UDP-Galactopyranose mutase severely affects parasite viability, embryogenesis and in vivo development of infective larvae