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Tracking the evolution of insecticide resistance in the mosquito Culex pipiens

Nature volume 400, pages 861–864 (1999)Cite this article

Abstract

The evolution of pesticide resistance provides some of the most striking examples of darwinian evolution occurring over a human life span. Identification of resistance alleles opens an outstanding framework in which to study the evolution of adaptive mutations from the beginning of pesticide application1,2,3, the evolution of interactions between alleles (dominance4) or between loci (epistasis5,6). Here we show that resistance alleles can also be used as markers to dissect population processes at a microevolutionary scale. We have focused on the antagonistic roles of selection and migration involved in the dynamics of local adaptation with reference to allelic frequencies at two resistance loci in the mosquito Culex pipiens. We find that their frequencies follow an annual cycle of large amplitude (25%), and we precisely unravel the seasonal variation of migration and selection underlying this cycle. Our results provide a firm basis on which to devise an insecticide treatment strategy that will better control the evolution of resistance genes and the growth of mosquito populations.

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Figure 1: Sample site locations in the north–south transect in Southern France.
Figure 2: Summer and winter clines of 1995 and 1996.
Figure 3: Annual variation of frequency clines at Ace.1 (subscript a) and Ester (subscript e) fitted by the migration–selection model.

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Acknowledgements

We thank C. Chevillon, I. Chuine, T. Day, P. David, P. Jarne, M. Kirkpatrick, J.Lagnel, Y. Michalakis, S. Otto, N. Pasteur F. Rousset and M. Whitlock for helpful comments and discussion, and C. Bernard and M. Marquine for technical assistance. This work was financed in part by GDR 1105 du programme Environnement, Vie et Sociétés du CNRS, by the PNETOX and by the Entente Interdépartementale pour la Démoustication du Languedoc Roussillon. T.L. was supported by an ASC fellowship from INRA contribution ISEM 99.068.

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Author notes

  1. Thomas Lenormand

    Present address: Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, V6T1Z4, Canada

  2. Denis Bourguet

    Present address: Station de Recherche de Lutte Biologique, INRA La Minière, 78 285, Guyancourt, France

  3. Thomas Guillemaud

    Present address: Lab. de biologia molecular, UCTRA, Universidade do Algarve, 8000, Faro, Portugal

  4. Thomas Lenormand: Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to T.L.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire Génétique et Environnement, Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution (UMR 5554), Université Montpellier II, 34095, Montpellier, Cedex 5, France

    Thomas Lenormand, Denis Bourguet, Thomas Guillemaud & Michel Raymond

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  1. Thomas Lenormand
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Correspondence to Thomas Lenormand.

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Lenormand, T., Bourguet, D., Guillemaud, T. et al. Tracking the evolution of insecticide resistance in the mosquito Culex pipiens. Nature 400, 861–864 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/23685

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