Inheritance mode and realized heritability of resistance to imidacloprid in the brown planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens (Stal) (Homoptera: Delphacidae)

BACKGROUND: The brown planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens (St5l), is a serious pest that causes enormous losses to the rice crop in Asia. The genetic basis of imiclacloprid resistance was investigated in N. lugens. RESULTS: The resistant strain, selected for imiclacloprid resistance from a field population of N. lugens collected from Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China, showed a 964-fold resistance compared with the laboratory strain. Progenies of reciprocal crosses (F-1 and F-1') showed similar dose-mortality responses (LC50) to imiclacloprid, and also exhibited a similar degree of dominance (D), 0.58 for F, and 0.63 for F-1'. Chi-square analyses of self-bred and backcross progenies (F-2, F-2' and BC respectively) rejected the hypothesis for a single gene control of the resistance. The estimated realized heritability (h(2)) of imiclacloprid resistance was 0.1141 in the resistant strain of N. lugens. CONCLUSION: The results showed that imiclacloprid resistance in N. lugens was autosomal and was expressed as an incompletely dominant trait, probably controlled by multiple genes. (c) 2009 Society of Chemical Industry