Inheritance, stability, cross-resistance, and life history parameters of a clothianidin-selected strain of house fly, Musca domestica Linnaeus

The house fly, Musca domestica L., is a cosmopolitan insect pest of public and animal health importance that serves as a mechanical vector of pathogens. Aimed at prospective resistance management to reduce environmental pollution, we characterized the inheritance pattern, realized heritability, fitness cost, cross resistance, stability and mechanism of clothianidin resistance in M. domestica that were collected from the poultry farm. By continuous selection with clothianidin for 11 generations, the clothianidin selected M. domestica strain (Clotha-SEL) developed a 3827-fold resistance compared to a susceptible strain. However, resistance to clothianidin was proved to be unstable when selection with clothianidin was removed for five generations (G(7) to G(12)). Inheritance pattern analysis at G(8) of Clotha-SEL (RR 1/4 897) revealed that resistance to clothianidin was polygenic, autosomal and incompletely dominant. Realized heritability (h(2)) for resistance value was 0.38 (at G(11)) in the tested strain. Synergist bioassays showed that microsomal oxidases and esterases might not contribute significantly in resistance evolution. Fitness costs of clothianidin resistance were present, for example, reduction in growth potential of the ClothaSEL strain in comparison to the untreated counterpart strain (UNSEL) was observed. No cross resistance to bifenthrin and fipronil and a very low cross-resistance to spinosad were observed. These insecticides could be alternated with clothianidin as an insecticide resistance management tool to sustain its efficacy for a longer time period. These results shall be utilized to devise a proactive resistance management strategy for use of clothianidin against M. domestica that will be helpful to alleviate the allied threats to environmental and human health. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The house fly is a cosmopolitan insect pest with high resistance to clothianidin, but this resistance is unstable and comes with fitness costs. The study showed that there is no cross resistance to insecticides such as bifenthrin, fipronil, and spinosad. This research provides valuable information for developing a proactive resistance management strategy against clothianidin in order to alleviate threats to environmental and human health.