The role of glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) in insecticide resistance in crop pests and disease vectors

Insecticide resistance seriously threatens efficient arthropod pest management. Arthropod glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) confer resistance via direct metabolism or sequestration of chemicals, but also indirectly by providing protection against oxidative stress induced by insecticide exposure. To date, GST activity has been associated with resistance to all main classes of insecticides. However, recent advances in genome and transcriptome sequencing, together with modern genetic, functional and biochemical techniques, facilitate the unraveling of specific GST-mediated resistance mechanisms. Recently, the role of a number of GSTs (BdGSTe2, BdGSTe4, AfGSTe2) has been validated by (reverse) genetic methods in vivo, while a number of GSTs (BmGSTu2, TuGSTd05, AfGSTe2) have now been shown to metabolize insecticides in vitro.