A novel mutation L1029H in sodium channel gene hscp associated with pyrethroid resistance for Heliothis virescens (Lepidoptera:Noctuidae).

Sequencing of the sodium channel gene hscp (para-homologous) revealed that a T to A mutation encoding a Leu to His change (L1029H) is associated with pyrethroid resistance in populations of Heliothis virescens F. This mutation occurs at a position homologous to that of the mutation Leu to Phe (L1014F) reportedly associated with knock-down resistance (kdr) to pyrethroids in a house fly strain. Another mutation reportedly associated with super-kdr in house fly was not found in H. virescens samples. In previous work, we found that one haplotype Hpy3 of a marker locus Hpy that lies approximately 5 kb away from the L1029H polymorphism in the gene, increased in frequency among survivors of selection with pyrethroids, presumably through "hitch-hiking" with a resistance-conferring mutation. Not all resistant individuals examined in this study carried the L1029H mutation, but only those that also carried Hpy3 haplotypes. Resistance has been genetically linked to hscp markers for the strain PEG87, but this strain was found not to carry the L1029H mutation. Assuming that the L1029H mutation does in fact confer resistance, this suggests that more than one sodium channel mutation may be contributing to pyrethroid resistance in field populations of H. virescens.