Science Snapshot: How One Insect Beats The Cost of Evolving Resistance To Insecticides

UArizona CALS
Chemical insecticides are used extensively to kill pests and thereby limit the harm they cause. However, overreliance on insecticides can promote rapid evolution of insecticide resistance in insect populations. In a new study Dr. Xianchun Li, BIO5 member and insect molecular biologist in the UArizona College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, along with colleagues Wenqing Zhang and Rui Pang, discovered how one insect beats the cost of resistance. The paper focuses on the brown planthopper, a tiny hemipteran insect that is the world’s most destructive pest of rice.