Cyflumetofen resistance in the two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae

Cyflumetofen is a novel acaricide on the international market with an unknown mode of action. Under laboratory conditions, we selected for high levels of cyflumetofen resistance in a susceptible mite strain and performed genome-wide gene-expression analysis. Differential expression between the resistant and susceptible strain was identified to study on the molecular level how mites develop resistance to this novel acaricide. Our results show that in T. urticae, the selection for cyflumetofen resistance resulted in a differential expression in only a limited number of genes. This transcriptomic study provides an unbiased look how cyflumetofen resistance triggers selection on the transcriptional level in T. urticae. 4 replicates for one comparison; per replicate 150 mites were pooled. Mites of the derived cyflumetofen resistant spider mite (cy5-labelled) were directly compared to mites of the ancestral susceptible strain (cy3-labelled).