Award details

Investigating resistance to neonicotinoid insecticides in insect pests

Reference	BBS/E/C/00004842
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Dr Ian Denholm
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	Rothamsted Research
Department	Rothamsted Research Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	102,240
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	02/01/2007
End date	01/01/2010
Duration	36 months

Abstract

The neonicotinoids are a highly successful class of insect- selective nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) agonists that are now used extensively for insect pest control in crop protection and animal health. Their widespread use has however led to reports of resistance in several important pest species. In this study, we will exploit recent work on the molecular analysis of nAChR subunit genes and our involvement in key resistance monitoring networks to evaluate the current status of resistance to these compounds in key target species including planthoppers, aphids, whiteflies and fleas, and to analyse resistant strains for possible target site mechanisms and mutations. This will involve membrane binding studies with nicotinic radioligands to look for alterations in the affinity of the target, coupled with a detailed molecular (sequence) characterisation of the individual nAChR subunit genes to identify the mutations that may be associated with reduced binding and hence resistance. Any such mutations, together with a single amino acid substitution already identified in brown planthoppers (Y151S), will then be subjected to more detailed examination of their effects on ligand binding through the expression and analysis of wild-type and mutated receptor subunits in Drosophila S2 cells and Xenopus oocytes. In addition to identifying mutations that can arise to confer resistance, we anticipate that these studies will also generate novel insights into the key ligand-receptor interactions that influence the potency and insect-selectively of this important class of insecticides at the nAChR. Finally, we will develop and validate high throughput DNA-based assays for diagnosing resistance mutations in individual insects in order to monitor their incidence in field populations and thereby aid resistance management strategies.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Agri-food (AF)
Research Topics	Crop Science, Plant Science
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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