The evolution of resistance to drugs and pesticides poses a major threat to human health and food security. Neonicotinoids are highly effective insecticides used to control agricultural pests. They target the insect nicotinic acetylcholine receptor and mutations of the receptor that confer resistance have been slow to develop, with only one field‐evolved mutation being reported to date. This is an arginine‐to‐threonine substitution at position 81 of the nAChR_β1 subunit in neonicotinoid‐resistant aphids. To validate the role of R81T in neonicotinoid resistance and to test whether it may confer any significant fitness costs to insects, CRISPR/Cas9 was used to introduce an analogous mutation in the genome of Drosophila melanogaster . Flies carrying R81T showed an increased tolerance (resistance) to neonicotinoid insecticides, accompanied by a significant reduction in fitness. In comparison, flies carrying a deletion of the whole nAChR_α6 subunit, the target site of spinosyns, showed an increased tolerance to this class of insecticides but presented almost no fitness deficits.

中文翻译：

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杀虫剂抗性的进化折衷-与果蝇nAChR中靶位点突变相关的适应性成本。

对药物和杀虫剂的抵抗力的演变对人类健康和粮食安全构成重大威胁。新烟碱是用于控制农业害虫的高效杀虫剂。他们的目标是昆虫的烟碱型乙酰胆碱受体，该受体的突变导致抵抗力的发展缓慢，迄今仅报道了一种场进化突变。这是新烟碱抵抗型蚜虫nAChR_β1亚基中第81位的精氨酸至苏氨酸取代。为了验证R81T在新烟碱抗性中的作用并测试其是否可能给昆虫带来重大的适应成本，使用CRISPR / Cas9在果蝇果蝇的基因组中引入了类似的突变。携带R81T的果蝇对新烟碱类杀虫剂的耐受性（抵抗力）增强，同时健身能力显着降低。相比之下，携带完整nAChR_α6亚基（多杀菌素的靶位点）缺失的果蝇对此类杀虫剂的耐受性增强，但几乎没有适应性缺陷。