Abstract Malathion resistance in the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum (Herbst), is a worldwide problem and is very stable once it becomes widespread in natural populations. In the absence of insecticide the proportion of resistant phenotypes may rapidly decline but the development of resistance does not always involve reduced fitness. Malathion-specific resistance in T. castaneum seems not to involve any loss of fitness in laboratory or field conditions. Susceptible beetles were in competition with resistant beetles at different initial frequencies and modifications of susceptible gene frequency were estimated in these laboratory populations over 10 generations. A significant decrease in susceptible gene frequency was observed in Tribolium populations over time. The selection coefficient of the susceptible allele was estimated and the fitness of susceptible alleles in all tests was observed to range from 0.89 to 0.93 compared with the fitness of resistant genotypes, which was assumed to be 1. Data provided evidence that the resistant strains exhibited fitness advantages in the absence of malathion. We also compared the biotic potential (fecundity and developmental time) of the susceptible strain, the homozygous malathion-specific resistant strain, and their hybrids. Malathion-specific resistant strains showed an 8–23% increase in biotic potential relative to the susceptible strain. These findings are consistent with those of malathion-specific resistance in T. castaneum; the fitness of the insects seems independent of the genetic background and the fitness of the resistant insects is not affected by this resistance mechanism.
Fitness Consequences of Malathion-Specific Resistance in Red Flour Beetle (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) and Selection for Resistance in the Absence of Malathion
Published 2001 in Journal of Economic Entomology
ABSTRACT
PUBLICATION RECORD
- Publication year
2001
- Venue
Journal of Economic Entomology
- Publication date
2001-04-01
- Fields of study
Biology, Medicine, Environmental Science
- Identifiers
- External record
- Source metadata
Semantic Scholar, PubMed
CITATION MAP
EXTRACTION MAP
CLAIMS
CONCEPTS
- biotic potential
A reproductive and developmental performance measure based on fecundity and developmental time in the beetle strains and hybrids.
- malathion-specific resistance
A resistance mechanism in the beetle that is specific to the organophosphate insecticide malathion.
Aliases: malathion resistance
- resistant genotypes
Genotypic classes carrying the malathion-resistant trait that were used as the comparison baseline for fitness estimates.
Aliases: resistant beetles
- selection coefficient
A parameter used to quantify relative fitness differences between susceptible and resistant genetic types in the population experiments.
- susceptible allele
An allele associated with insecticide susceptibility and tracked through changes in frequency during the competition experiments.
Aliases: susceptible gene
- tribolium castaneum
The red flour beetle species used as the experimental insect model in the resistance and fitness comparisons.
Aliases: red flour beetle, T. castaneum
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