A Single Cytochrome P450 Allele Associated with a Global Spread of Insecticide Resistance. P.J. Daborn 1, J.L Yen 1, G. Le Goff 1, S. Boundy 1, M.R Bogwitz 2, T. Perry 2, S. Jeffers 3, D. Heckel 2, P. Batterham 2, R. Feyereisen 4, T.G. Wilson 3, R.H. ffrench-Constant 1. 1) Biology and Biochemistry, University of Bath, Bath, United Kingdom; 2) Centre for Environmental Stress and Adaptation Research (CESAR), Department of Genetics, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; 3) Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, USA; 4) INRA Centre de Recherches d'Antibes, Valbonne, France.
Insecticide resistance is one of the most widespread genetic changes caused by human activity, but we still understand little about the origins and spread of resistant alleles in global populations of insects. DDT-R is a gene conferring resistance to the insecticide DDT, as well as many currently used insecticides, including neonicotinoids and some insect growth regulators. Here, via microarray analysis of all cytochrome P450 genes in Drosophila melanogaster we show that insecticide resistance is associated with over-transcription of a single cytochrome P450 gene, Cyp6g1 . Transgenic analysis of Cyp6g1 shows that over-transcription of this gene alone is both necessary and sufficient for resistance. Resistance and Cyp6g1 up-regulation in Drosophila populations are associated with a single Cyp6g1 allele that has spread globally. This allele is characterized by the insertion of a fragment of an Accord transposable element into the 5 primeof the Cyp6g1 gene. The Accord insertion alters the native temporal and spatial expression of Cyp6g1 .