High throughput sequencing reveals Drosophila suzukii responses to insecticides

Global climate change and acquired resistance to insecticides are threats to world food security. Drosophila suzukii, a devastating invasive pest in many parts of the world, causes substantial economic losses to fruit production industries, forcing farmers to apply broad-spectrum insecticides frequently. This could lead to the development of insecticide resistance. We determined the Lethal Concentration 50 (median lethal concentration, LC₅₀ ) values of zeta-cypermethrin, spinosad, and malathion insecticides against D. suzukii colonies established from Clarke and Pierce county Georgia, United States. The LC₅₀ values were 3 fold higher in the Pierce county population for all insecticide treatments. We then used RNA sequencing to analyze the responses of Pierce and Clarke population flies surviving a LC₅₀ treatment of the 3 insecticides. We identified a high number of differentially expressed genes that are likely involved in detoxification and reduced cuticular penetration, especially in the Pierce population, with extensive overlap in differentially expressed genes between the 3 insecticide treatments. Finally, we predicted fewer nonsynonymous single nucleotide variants having deleterious effects on protein function among detoxification, insecticide target, and cuticular protein encoding genes in Pierce flies. Thus a combination of increased gene expression and fewer deleterious single nucleotide variants highlights molecular mechanisms underlying the higher LC₅₀ values for Pierce population flies.