ABOVE: PROVIDED BY C. WONDJI FROM LSTM/CRID
In the arms race of humans verses malaria-spreading mosquitos, the insects have developed a number of genetic tricks to thwart pyrethroids, a class of insecticides used to keep their populations at bay. For instance, in mosquitos with a particular mutation, the insecticides can’t bind to their target. Metabolic resistance, which allows mosquitos to digest the chemicals and detoxify them, has been harder to pin down genetically, leaving scientists without markers to easily track the spread of various metabolic tactics.
Now, researchers have found a marker, a single mutation, linked to pyrethroid detoxification in populations of southern Africa’s Anopheles funestus, a major malaria vector, and can use it to monitor the spread of resistance, the scientists reported March 20 in Science Translational Medicine.
“It’s a magnificent piece of work. It’s bridging a large gap,” says Jo Lines, a malaria entomologist at the London School ...
