Cis- And trans-acting variants contribute to survivorship in a naïve Drosophila melanogaster population exposed to ryanoid insecticides

Abstract

Insecticide resistance is a paradigm of microevolution, and insecticides are responsible for the strongest cases of recent selection in the genome of Drosophila melanogaster. Herewe use a naïve population and a novel insecticide class to examine the ab initio genetic architecture of a potential selective response. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of chlorantraniliprole susceptibility reveal variation in a gene of major effect, Stretchin Myosin light chain kinase (Strn-Mlck), which we validate with linkagemapping and transgenic manipulation of gene expression. We propose that allelic variation in Strn-Mlck alters sensitivity to the calcium depletion attributable to chlorantraniliprole's..