Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100503/full/news.2010.216.html
Mosquitoes inherit DEET resistance
Genetic trait explains how some insects are unaffected by powerful repellent.
Janelle Weaver
The indifference of some mosquitoes to a common insect repellent is due to an easily inherited genetic trait that can be rapidly evolved by later generations, a new study suggests.
By selective breeding, James Logan and colleagues at Rothamsted Research in Harpenden, UK, created strains of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in which half of the females do not respond to DEET (N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide) ? a powerful insect repellent. They suggest that this rapidly evolved insensitivity is due to a single dominant gene ? one that confers resistance even if the trait is inherited from only one parent.
The researchers have not identified the gene that they propose is responsible for DEET resistance, or precise details about its workings. They did, however, find a type of odour-sensing cell that responds to DEET in most mosquitoes but is less sensitive to the repellent in the resistant ones. Their findings are reported today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (1)
"That there might actually be a gene lurking in the background in mosquitoes that causes DEET resistance is the single most surprising result," says Leslie Vosshall, who was not involved with the study and who investigates the neural and genetic basis of odour perception in mosquitoes at the Rockefeller University in New York City. "This hasn't really been reported before..."
... References
(1) Stanczyk, N. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA doi:10.1073/pnas.1001313107 (2010).
Mosquitoes inherit DEET resistance
Genetic trait explains how some insects are unaffected by powerful repellent.
Janelle Weaver
The indifference of some mosquitoes to a common insect repellent is due to an easily inherited genetic trait that can be rapidly evolved by later generations, a new study suggests.
By selective breeding, James Logan and colleagues at Rothamsted Research in Harpenden, UK, created strains of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in which half of the females do not respond to DEET (N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide) ? a powerful insect repellent. They suggest that this rapidly evolved insensitivity is due to a single dominant gene ? one that confers resistance even if the trait is inherited from only one parent.
The researchers have not identified the gene that they propose is responsible for DEET resistance, or precise details about its workings. They did, however, find a type of odour-sensing cell that responds to DEET in most mosquitoes but is less sensitive to the repellent in the resistant ones. Their findings are reported today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (1)
"That there might actually be a gene lurking in the background in mosquitoes that causes DEET resistance is the single most surprising result," says Leslie Vosshall, who was not involved with the study and who investigates the neural and genetic basis of odour perception in mosquitoes at the Rockefeller University in New York City. "This hasn't really been reported before..."
... References
(1) Stanczyk, N. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA doi:10.1073/pnas.1001313107 (2010).