Do pollutants affect insecticide-driven gene selection in mosquitoes? Experimental evidence from transcriptomics

The control of mosquitoes transmitting infectious diseases relies mainly on the use of chemical insecticides. However, the emergence of insecticide resistance threatens mosquito control programs. Until now, most research efforts have been focused on elucidating resistance mechanisms caused by insecticide treatments. Less attention has been paid to the impact of the mosquito chemical environment on insecticide-driven selection mechanisms. Here the mosquito Aedes aegypti was used as a model species to conduct laboratory experiments combining the exposure of mosquito larvae to a sub-lethal concentration of xenobiotics and their selection with the insecticide permethrin. After 10 generations, bioassays and a transcriptome profiling with a 15k microarray were performed comparatively on all strains. The three selected strains showed a small but significant increase of permethrin resistance compared to the susceptible parental strain. Microarray analysis revealed that the transcription of many genes was altered by insecticide selection. Exposing larvae to sub-lethal concentrations of the pollutant fluoranthene or the insecticide permethrin prior to selection at each generation affected the selection of several genes, including those involved in detoxification, transport and cell metabolism. Genes potentially involved in permethrin resistance and cross-responses between xenobiotics and insecticide were identified. The present study investigated for the first time the impact of the presence of pollutants in mosquito environment on insecticide-driven selection mechanisms. Our results revealed that mosquitoes exposed to xenobiotics show a different adaptive response to insecticide selection pressure. This suggests that insect chemical environment can shape the long-term selection of metabolic mechanisms leading to insecticide resistance.

► We investigated the effect of pollutant exposure on insecticide resistance in mosquitoes.
► Experiments were conducted combining pollutant exposure and insecticide selection.
► We examine changes in insecticide tolerance and gene transcription levels.
► Pollutant exposure can modulate gene selection by insecticides.