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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Gainesville, Florida » Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology » Mosquito and Fly Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #199502

Title: Behavioral change, physiological modification, and metabolic detoxification: mechanisms of insecticide resistance

Author
item NAN-NAN, LIU - AUBURN UNIVERSITY
item FANG, ZHU - AUBURN UNIVERSITY
item QIANG, XU - AUBURN UNIVERSITY
item Wei Pridgeon, Yuping
item XI-WU, GAO - CHINA AGRI UNIVER

Submitted to: Acta Entomologica Sinica
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/16/2006
Publication Date: 8/1/2006
Citation: Nan-Nan, L., Fang, Z., Qiang, X., Pridgeon, J.W., Xi-Wu, G. 2006. Behavioral change, physiological modification, and metabolic detoxification: mechanisms of insecticide resistance. Acta Entomologica Sinica .

Interpretive Summary: Insecticide resistance has resulted in the need for increased dosage and frequency of application. Mechanisms of insecticide resistance that contributed to the requirement of higher dosage at the target site were reviewed in this paper, including behavioral change, physiological modification, and metabolic detoxification. This review paper will help us better understand how insects become resistant to insecticides, therefore, will enable us to develop a successful program to overcome resistance.

Technical Abstract: Insecticide resistance is "the development of an ability in a strain of some organisms to tolerate doses of a toxicant which would prove lethal to a majority of individuals in a normal population of the same species". Mechanisms of resistance, such as behavioral change, physiological modification or metabolic detoxification, decrease the effective dose available at the target site. Behavioral resistance is defined as any behavior that reduces an insect's exposure to toxic compounds or that allows an insect to survive in an environment that is harmful and/or fatal to the majority of insects. Physiological modification mechanisms permit insects to survive lethal doses of a toxicant through decreased penetration of insecticides, increased sequestration/storage of insecticides, and accelerated excretion of hydrolases and glutathione transferases (GSTs). Cytochrome P450s constitute the largest gene superfamily and are critical for the detoxification and/or activation of xenobiotics and the metabolisms of endogenous compounds. Increased P450-mediated detoxification has been found in many insect species, resulting in enhanced insecticide resistance. Glutathione transfereases (GSTs) are soluable dimeric protiens involved in the metabolism, detoxification, and excretion of a large number of endogenous and exogenous compounds. Elevated GST activities have been implicated in resistance in many insect species. Hydrolases or esterases, a group of heterogeneous enzymes, have been identified as the active agents promoting hydrolase-mediated resistance that protect insects by either binding and sequestering insecticides through overproduction of proteins, or enhancing the metabolism of insecticides through increased enzyme activities.