MOLECULAR ANALYSIS OF METHOPRENE-TOLERANT, A GENE IN DROSOPHILA INVOLVED IN RESISTANCE TO JUVENILE-HORMONE ANALOG INSECT GROWTH-REGULATORS

Juvenile hormone (JH) analogs offer promise for insect control. To understand insect resistance to this class of insect growth regulators, the model insect Drosophila melanogaster is being used to identify genes involved in resistance to methoprene. A major resistance gene is Methoprene-tolerant (Met), which results in resistance to several JH analogs by a target-site resistance mechanism involving an insensitive putative JH receptor. Several transposable element insertional alleles of Met have been generated, demonstrating that this type of mutagenesis can result in insecticide-resistant insects. One of these alleles is being used to clone the Met+ gene by transposon tagging. The potential involvement of Met gene homologs in pest insect resistance to JH analogs is discussed.