ABSTRACT
The genomes of major insect and other pests are yet being sequenced in toto and thus the ‘genomics’ revolution has not yet played a part in understanding and combating insecticide resistance. In most cases, when a pest first shows resistance to an insecticide, the nature of the mechanisms involved are not known. In the past, the answer was eventually found by a series of trial and error investigations in which a number of educated guesses were studied in some detail, until a suitable body of evidence could be assembled. Gene amplification has long been documented as a means of resistance to insecticides and other xenobiotics. Myzus persicae, and its tobacco feeding form M. nicotianae, have developed resistance in this way to organophosphate, carbamate and pyrethroid insecticides. Resistance based on altered target sites is well-established across all pests. Where sequences of the gene for that site are known, it has been possible to find mutations that can explain the resistance.
