Fitness costs associated with insecticide resistance

Insects are exposed to a variety of stress factors in their environment, and, in many cases for insect pests to agriculture, those factors include toxic chemical insecticides. Coping with the toxicity of insecticides can be costly and requires energy and resource allocation for adaptation and survival. Several behavioural, physiological and genetic mechanisms are used by insects to handle toxic insecticides, sometimes leading to resistance by constitutive overexpression of detoxification enzymes or inducing mutations in the target sites. Such actions are costly and may affect reproduction, impair dispersal ability and have several other effects on the insect's fitness. Fitness costs resulting from resistance to insecticides has been reported in many insects from different orders, and several examples are given in this mini‐review. Copyright © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry     

河北省不同地区棉蚜种群对6种杀虫剂抗药性与种群适合度

为了利用棉蚜抗性种群的适合度代价,指导田间棉蚜种群抗药性治理,笔者采用浸渍法测定并明确了河北省不同地区棉蚜对6种杀虫剂的抗性水平及差异,并组建了河北省不同地区棉蚜的实验种群生命表,以期明确河北省抗性棉蚜种群的适合度变化。结果表明,邯郸棉蚜种群对丁硫克百威(RI=80.5)、氰戊菊酯(RI=28.6)和阿维菌素(RI=108.7)的抗性明显高于保定和沧州地区棉蚜种群。从各地区棉蚜实验种群生命表结果来看,邯郸棉蚜种群净繁殖率(37.9±2.51)和相对适合度(0.78)明显低于室内敏感种群,而保定和沧州棉蚜均与敏感种群没有显著性差异。结合已有棉蚜抗性种群适合度研究结果,笔者认为河北省邯郸棉蚜种群适合度下降可能与其对丁硫克百威或阿维菌素的高抗性有关。因而,针对邯郸棉蚜种群抗药性治理,应暂停使用丁硫克百威和阿维菌素,轮换使用抗性风险较低的吡虫啉、噻虫胺等杀虫剂品种。     

Tebufenozide resistance selected in Plutella xylostella and its cross-resistance and fitness cost

A susceptible strain of diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella (L.), was used to select for resistance to tebufenozide in the laboratory. After continuous selection with tebufenozide 17 times during 35 generations, a resistant strain was achieved with high resistance to tebufenozide (RR 93.8). Bioassay revealed that this strain showed high cross-resistance to abamectin (RR 35.7), methoxyfenozide (29.1) and JS118 (16.5), and a little to deltamethrin (3.9), but no obvious cross-resistance was found to cypermethrin (1.3), fipronil (1.3), trichlorfon (1.1), chlorfenapyr (1.0), phoxim (0.9) and acephate (0.8). The resistant and susceptible insects had similar development rates, but life table tests indicated that the resistant strain showed reproductive disadvantages, including decreased copulation rate, reproductivity and hatchability. When compared with the susceptible strain, the resistant insects had a relative fitness of only 0.3. This indicated that tebufenozide resistance selected under laboratory conditions had considerable fitness costs in this pest, and therefore rotational use of insecticides without cross-resistance is recommended to delay development of resistance.     

Simulating evolution of glyphosate resistance in Lolium rigidum I: population biology of a rare resistance trait

Despite frequent use for the past 25 years, resistance to glyphosate has evolved in few weed biotypes. The propensity for evolution of resistance is not the same for all herbicides, and glyphosate has a relatively low resistance risk. The reasons for these differences are not entirely understood. A previously published two‐herbicide resistance model has been modified to explore biological and management factors that account for observed rates of evolution of glyphosate resistance. Resistance to a post‐emergence herbicide was predicted to evolve more rapidly than it did to glyphosate, even when both were applied every year and had the same control efficacy. Glyphosate is applied earlier in the growing season when fewer weeds have emerged and hence exerts less selection pressure on populations. The evolution of glyphosate resistance was predicted to arise more rapidly when glyphosate applications were later in the growing season. In simulations that assumed resistance to the post‐emergence herbicide did not evolve, the evolution of glyphosate resistance was less rapid, because post‐emergence herbicides were effectively controlling rare glyphosate‐resistant individuals. On their own, these management‐related factors could not entirely account for rates of evolution of resistance to glyphosate observed in the field. In subsequent analyses, population genetic parameter values (initial allele frequency, dominance and fitness) were selected on the basis of empirical data from a glyphosate‐resistant Lolium rigidum population. Predicted rates of evolution of resistance were similar to those observed in the field. Together, the timing of glyphosate applications, the rarity of glyphosate‐resistant mutants, the incomplete dominance of glyphosate‐resistant alleles and pleiotropic fitness costs associated with glyphosate resistance, all contribute to its relatively slow evolution in the field.     

Challenges for herbicide resistance evolution and management: 50 years after Harper

Evolved resistance to herbicides is a classic example of ‘evolution in action’. This paper calls for a greater integration of ‘evolutionary‐thinking’ into herbicide resistance research. This integration, it is argued, should lead weed scientists to become less focused on simply describing resistance and more driven towards a deeper understanding of the evolutionary forces that underpin resistance evolution. I have attempted in this short paper to initiate a debate into how this might be done. In the first instance, I have highlighted the widespread misunderstanding and mis‐measurement by weed scientists of fitness and fitness costs. I have also speculated on the potential for herbicide rotations to exacerbate resistance problems by selecting for generalist (metabolic) resistance. Finally, I have discussed in greater detail the contribution of herbicide rates to resistance evolution and have reported work conducted in Australia which has shown the potential for low herbicide doses to rapidly select for very high levels of resistance in Lolium rigidum. The controversial hypotheses and suggestions put forward need to be tested by field experimentation. They may prove to be unfounded or incorrect, but if they cause us to question and expand the current resistance paradigm they will have been useful.     

Adaptation to pyrrolnitrin in Botrytis cinerea and cost of resistance

The objective of this work was to estimate the risk of a decrease in the efficacy of biocontrol as a result of selection pressure exerted by biocontrol agents on Botrytis cinerea, focusing on pyrrolnitrin, an antibiotic identified in diverse biocontrol agents having an effect on B. cinerea. To evaluate a possible decrease in sensitivity to pyrrolnitrin, 10 successive generations of five isolates of B. cinerea were produced in vitro in the presence of a sublethal dose (10 μg L^?1) of the antibiotic. For one isolate, a significant reduction in the sensitivity to pyrrolnitrin at the fifth generation was observed with a resistance factor of c. 11. The production of 10 additional generations for four of these isolates, with increasing doses of pyrrolnitrin (100–4000 μg L^?1), resulted in the development of variants of B. cinerea with high levels of resistance to the antibiotic (RF > 1000) and a reduced sensitivity in vitro to a pyrrolnitrin‐producing bacterium. Reverse adaptation of resistant variants after 10 additional generations in the absence of selection pressure was not observed, suggesting stability of the resistance. Comparison of the pyrrolnitrin‐resistant generations and their sensitive parental isolates for mycelial growth, sporulation and aggressiveness on plant tissues revealed that the high level of resistance to pyrrolnitrin resulted in a high fitness cost. Mycelial growth was reduced between 1·7 to 3·6 times and sporulation reduced 3·8 to 6·6 times that of sensitive parental isolates. Similarly, aggressiveness was 7 to 10 and 3 to 10 times lower for resistant isolates on tomato and apple, respectively. This study provides evidence that a fungal plant pathogen is able to gradually build up resistance to an antibiotic produced by a biocontrol agent.     

Influence of multiple herbicide resistance on growth in Amaranthus tuberculatus

Plant defence traits, such as herbicide resistance mutations, may incur a fitness cost to plants that become evident when the trait is not needed. However, individuals with multiple herbicide resistance traits may decrease fitness beyond that of plants with a single herbicide resistance mutation. Multiple herbicide‐resistant (MHR) Amaranthus tuberculatus populations are becoming more prevalent in Midwest United States agroecosystems. The objective was to determine whether selected MHR A. tuberculatus populations express differential development when grown in a herbicide‐free environment. The hypothesis was that MHR A. tuberculatus populations become increasingly less fit when additional herbicide resistances evolve. Multiple herbicide‐resistant and herbicide‐susceptible A. tuberculatus populations were grown in a herbicide‐free field for 20 weeks for two seasons. Differences (P < 0.001) in apical growth were detected 5 and 7 weeks after transplanting for all populations in 2016 and 2017 respectively. Gender and population influenced (P < 0.001) flowering date, with males flowering up to 1.5 weeks earlier than females, but did not cause pollination asynchrony. Shoot biomass was not different (P = 0.84) across A. tuberculatus populations, but there were differences (P < 0.001) for gender and year. Seed production was different amongst A. tuberculatus populations (P = 0.001), but was not influenced by the number of MHR traits. Conversely, a negative quadratic relationship between seed mass and the number of MHR traits was observed (r² = 0.32; P < 0.001). The experiment results demonstrate that MHR in A. tuberculatus populations is not incurring a fitness penalty that will remove the populations in the immediate future.     

黄瓜白粉病菌对己唑醇的敏感基线及实验室抗性获得

为了评价黄瓜白粉病菌对己唑醇的抗性风险,采用子叶法测定了山东地区50个黄瓜白粉病菌菌株对己唑醇的敏感性。结果表明,各菌株敏感性存在较大差异,EC50值最低为0.0017μg/mL,最高达0.16μg/mL,平均值为0.028μg/mL,由于所有菌株均采自未使用过脱甲基抑制剂类杀菌剂的黄瓜日光温室,敏感性频率呈近似正态分布,可作为黄瓜白粉病菌对己唑醇的相对敏感基线。以野生菌株为材料,以紫外线诱导和药剂驯化相结合获得了2个黄瓜白粉病菌对己唑醇的抗性菌株,比较了抗性菌株和敏感菌株的适合度和分生孢子的竞争能力。结果表明,无药情况下2个抗性菌株与野生菌株适合度无显著差异。抗性菌株和敏感菌株分生孢子以80∶20混合培养7代后,抗性菌株的频率变化不明显;50∶50混合培养7代,中抗菌株的抗性频率明显降低,而高抗菌株的抗性频率降低不明显;20∶80混合培养7代,抗性菌株的频率变低甚至消失。     

Efficacy of the R2 resistance gene as a component for the durable management of potato late blight in France

Many race-specific resistance genes to potato late blight are overcome in France, but the disease appears later on genotypes carrying the R2 gene. This study examined whether R2 could contribute to durable late-blight control in France, and analysed the conditions of its performance. Plants grown from tubers of different physiological ages showed no difference in R2 expression in field and climate-chamber experiments, demonstrating that the delay in epidemic onset provided by R2 was not the result of gene inactivation in old plants. Among isolates collected at one site, those virulent on R2 were classified into three AFLP profiles. AFLP-VII comprised exclusively isolates virulent to R2 , whereas AFLP-IV and AFLP-V included both virulent and avirulent isolates. No significant aggressiveness differences were observed between virulent and avirulent isolates from AFLP-V; however, isolates from AFLP-VII were significantly less aggressive than virulent isolates from AFLP-V. These results indicate that: (i) the delayed onset of epidemics on R2 cultivars is the result of the breakdown of R2 by virulent isolates; (ii) aggressiveness of isolates virulent to R2 depends primarily on the genetic background of the pathogen where the mutation to virulence occurs; and (iii) this mutation does not lead per se to lower pathogenic fitness. It is suggested that R2 is unlikely to make a lasting contribution to late-blight control in France, and that diversification strategies such as cultivar mixtures might not considerably increase its durability.