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Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences logoLink to Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
. 1998 Oct 29;353(1376):1707–1711. doi: 10.1098/rstb.1998.0322

An overview of the evolution of overproduced esterases in the mosquito Culex pipiens.

M Raymond 1, C Chevillon 1, T Guillemaud 1, T Lenormand 1, N Pasteur 1
PMCID: PMC1692391  PMID: 10021771

Abstract

Insecticide resistance genes have developed in a wide variety of insects in response to heavy chemical application. Few of these examples of adaptation in response to rapid environmental change have been studied both at the population level and at the gene level. One of these is the evolution of the overproduced esterases that are involved in resistance to organophosphate insecticides in the mosquito Culex pipiens. At the gene level, two genetic mechanisms are involved in esterase overproduction, namely gene amplification and gene regulation. At the population level, the co-occurrence of the same amplified allele in distinct geographic areas is best explained by the importance of passive transportation at the worldwide scale. The long-term monitoring of a population of mosquitoes in southern France has enabled a detailed study to be made of the evolution of resistance genes on a local scale, and has shown that a resistance gene with a lower cost has replaced a former resistance allele with a higher cost.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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