Costs and benefits of multiple resistance to insecticides for <Emphasis Type="Italic">Culex quinquefasciatus</Emphasis> mosquitoes

Background  

The evolutionary dynamics of xenobiotic resistance depends on how resistance mutations influence the fitness of their bearers, both in the presence and absence of xenobiotic selection pressure. In cases of multiple resistance, these dynamics will also depend on how individual resistance mutations interact with one another, and on the xenobiotics applied against them. We compared Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes harbouring two resistance alleles ace-1 ^R and Kdr ^R (conferring resistance to carbamate and pyrethroid insecticides, respectively) to mosquitoes bearing only one of the alleles, or neither allele. Comparisons were made in environments where both, only one, or neither type of insecticide was present.