Alterations of the acetylcholinesterase enzyme in the oriental fruit fly Bactrocera dorsalis are correlated with resistance to the organophosphate insecticide fenitrothion

Alterations of the structure and activity of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE) leading to resistance to organophosphate insecticides have been examined in the oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel), an economic pest of great economic importance in the Asia-Pacific region. We used affinity chromatography to purify AChE isoenzymes from heads of insects from lines showing the phenotypes of resistance and sensitivity to insecticide treatments. The AChE enzyme from a strain selected for resistance to the insecticide fenitrothion shows substantially lower catalytic efficiency for various substrates and 124-, 373- and 5810-fold less sensitivity to inhibition by paraoxon, eserine and fenitroxon, respectively, compared to that of the fenitrothion susceptible line. Using peptide mass fingerprinting, we also show how specific changes in the structure of the AChE enzymes in these lines relate to the resistant and sensitive alleles of the AChE (ace) gene characterized previously in this species (described in Hsu, J.-C., Haymer, D.S., Wu, W.-J., Feng, H.-T., 2006. Mutations in the acetylcholinesterase gene of Bactrocera dorsalis associated with resistance to organophosphorus insecticides. Insect Biochem. Mol. Biol. 36, 396–402). Polyclonal antibodies specific to the purified isoenzymes and real-time PCR were also used to show that both the amount of the isoenzyme present and the expression levels of the ace genes were not significantly different between the R and S lines, indicating that quantitative changes in gene expression were not significantly contributing to the resistance phenotype. Overall, our results support a direct causal relationship between the mutations previously identified in the ace gene of this species and qualitative alterations of the structure and function of the AChE enzyme as the basis for the resistance phenotype. Our results also provide a basis for further comparisons of insecticide resistance phenomena seen in closely related species, such as Bactrocera oleae, as well as in a wide range of more distantly related insect species.