Evolutionary trade‐offs of insecticide resistance — The fitness costs associated with target‐site mutations in the nAChR of Drosophila melanogaster

The evolution of resistance to drugs and pesticides poses a major threat to human health and food security. Neonicotinoids are highly effective insecticides used to control agricultural pests. They target the insect nicotinic acetylcholine receptor and mutations of the receptor that confer resistanc...

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Published inMolecular ecology Vol. 29; no. 14; pp. 2661 - 2675
Main Authors Homem, Rafael A., Buttery, Bliss, Richardson, Ewan, Tan, Yao, Field, Linda M., Williamson, Martin S., Emyr Davies, T. G.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.07.2020
John Wiley and Sons Inc
Subjects
Acetylcholine receptors (nicotinic)
Agrochemicals
Arginine
CRISPR
Drosophila melanogaster
Drug resistance
Evolution
Fitness
Food security
Genomes
Health risks
Insecticide resistance
Insecticides
Insects
Mutation
nAChR_α6
nAChR_β1
neonicotinoids
nicotinic acetylcholine receptor
Original
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
Pest control
Pesticide resistance
Pesticides
Pests
R81T
Receptors
Reproductive fitness
spinosad
Threonine
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Summary:The evolution of resistance to drugs and pesticides poses a major threat to human health and food security. Neonicotinoids are highly effective insecticides used to control agricultural pests. They target the insect nicotinic acetylcholine receptor and mutations of the receptor that confer resistance have been slow to develop, with only one field‐evolved mutation being reported to date. This is an arginine‐to‐threonine substitution at position 81 of the nAChR_β1 subunit in neonicotinoid‐resistant aphids. To validate the role of R81T in neonicotinoid resistance and to test whether it may confer any significant fitness costs to insects, CRISPR/Cas9 was used to introduce an analogous mutation in the genome of Drosophila melanogaster. Flies carrying R81T showed an increased tolerance (resistance) to neonicotinoid insecticides, accompanied by a significant reduction in fitness. In comparison, flies carrying a deletion of the whole nAChR_α6 subunit, the target site of spinosyns, showed an increased tolerance to this class of insecticides but presented almost no fitness deficits.
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ISSN:0962-1083
1365-294X
DOI:10.1111/mec.15503