The colonization of pyrethroid resistant strain from wild Anopheles sinensis, the major Asian malaria vector

Anopheles sinensis is one of the most important malaria vectors in Asian countries. The rapid spread of insecticide resistance has become a major obstacle for insecticide-based strategies for vector control. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare an insecticide-resistant strain of An. sinensis to further understand the insecticide resistance mechanisms in this species to facilitate genetic approaches to targeting the insecticide-resistant population of this important malaria vector.

An. sinensis mosquitoes were collected from regions where pyrethroid resistance had been reported. The mosquitoes were subjected to continuous pyrethroid selection after species confirmation, and the forced copulation method was used to increase the mating rate. In addition, the knockdown-resistance (kdr) mutation frequencies of each generation of An. sinensis were measured; and the metabolic enzyme activities of cytochrome P450 monoxygenases (P450s) and glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) were detected.

The identification of field-captured An. sinensis was confirmed by both morphological and molecular methods. The population of An. sinensis exhibited stable resistance to pyrethroid after continuous generations of pyrethroid selection in the laboratory with high kdr mutation frequencies; and elevated levels of both P450s and GSTs were significantly found in field selected populations comparing with the laboratory susceptible strain. So far, the colonised strain has reached its eleventh generation and culturing well in the laboratory.

We colonised a pyrethroid-resistant population of An. sinensis in the laboratory, which provides a fundamental model for genetic studies of this important malaria vector.