Role of Histone Modifications in Insecticide Resistance and Response of Insect Pests
christensen, blair
christensen, blair
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Abstract
The ability of herbivorous insect pests to quickly adapt to insecticides is a major issue preventing sustainability in agriculture. Despite massive investment in insecticide development, the mechanisms that control the regulatory metabolic response that allows pests to tolerate insecticide exposure are poorly understood. Using the Colorado potato beetle (CPB), Leptinotarsa decemlineata, a successful invasive agricultural pest, we tested how epigenetic modifications like histone acetylation can mediate the development of insecticide resistance. For this experiment, we measured insect response under 4 stress treatments: (A) control, (B) histone acetylase inhibitor C646, (C) the insecticide imidacloprid, and (D) a combination of imidacloprid and C646. We used a combination of ChIP seq on the identified histone sites, RNA seq, and phenotypic assays to measure histone modification, gene expression, and performance after sublethal exposure. We predicted that a transcriptional response explains short term metabolic insecticide resistance in insect pests, and that this upregulation is governed by epigenetic changes; inhibiting histone acetylation will significantly change (increase) gene expression and survival after challenge with a sublethal dose of insecticide. We found that larvae that received a sublethal dose of imidacloprid were twice as likely to die following exposure to a histone acetylase inhibitor, suggesting that blocking histone acetylation can limit the beetle's metabolic response to insecticidal stress. Exposure to imidacloprid increased histone acetylation at key sites of Histone 3 (H3) (H3K9, H3K18, and H3K27), and can cause to an eight-fold increase in overall H3 acetylation after imidacloprid exposure relative to an unexposed control. These findings may help explain how metabolic resistance occurs, leading to a paradigm shift in insecticide resistance management.
Description
Date
1/1/2026
Student Status
Graduate Student
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Poster
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Insect Agroecology
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College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
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Life Science