SUPR
Genomic Architecture of resistance to insecticides in mosquitoes
Dnr:

NAISS 2024/23-48

Type:

NAISS Small Storage

Principal Investigator:

Pascal Milesi

Affiliation:

Uppsala universitet

Start Date:

2024-02-01

End Date:

2025-02-01

Primary Classification:

10615: Evolutionary Biology

Webpage:

Allocation

Abstract

Since the middle of the 20th century, insecticides have been massively used to control the vectors of infectious diseases and thus limit their impact on public health. This drastic modification of their environment has selected different adaptations in these vectors, collectively referred to as insecticide resistance. The genomic architecture of these adaptations can be very diverse, ranging from simple nucleotide substitutions to large-scale mutations such as gene duplication. The effects of these different mutations on the vectors phenotype and fitness can differ and are difficult to anticipate, particularly in an environment that is itself variable. Using interdisciplinary approaches, the ArchR project notably aims 1) to understand how these different genomic architectures impact the phenotype of their carriers, and to measure the evolutionary dynamics of multi-copy alleles under various intensities of insecticidal pressure in natura and 2) to study how variations in environmental conditions and the architecture of these adaptive mutations influence the dynamics of genome polymorphism, via the natural selection of resistance alleles and the demographic effects of insecticide treatments To achieve these objectives, the ArchR project will rely on the wide diversity of resistance alleles with copy number variations found in the Culex pipiens mosquito, and on a unique collection of natural population samples collected over 30 years, combined with quantitative data on insecticide treatment variations.