Tetranychus urticae Genome sequencing. Tetranychus urticae

To identify resistance mutations for etoxazole, a pesticide that inhibits chitin biosynthesis. This was done by sequencing etoxazole sensitive and resistant strains of the two-spotted spider mite (London and EtoxR respectively), as well as selected and unselected populations derived from crosses between the two. SNP discovery and genotyping by next generation sequencing led to the identification of a single variant that confers resistance. This target site resistance variant is in chitin snythase, identifying the enzyme (for the first time) as the molecular target of etoxazole (and potentially other agriculturally important pesticides).