Abstract
THE chemical control of insects has been hampered by the widespread development of strains which are resistant to insecticides1. Resistance mechanisms often involve detoxication processes2, and many detoxication mechanisms in resistant strains have two features in common. First, they are not peculiar to the resistant insects. Susceptible strains often degrade the insecticide by similar metabolic pathways, but much less extensively, and the biochemical novelty which confers resistance is thus often quantitative rather than qualitative. Moreover, comparable detoxication pathways establish the natural tolerance of species which lack resistant strains2,3. Second, resistance involving detoxication can usually be overcome or reduced if the insecticide is applied with a non-toxic dose of synergist2. The synergists appear to inhibit enzymes involved in detoxication. The best known are methylenedioxyphenyl compounds such as piperonyl butoxide and sesamex which reduce the resistance of insects to DDT2,4,5, pyrethrins6, orgariophosphates5, carbamates7 and dieldrin8, and the tolerance of susceptible strains to these and other insecticides, including several derived from plants, as discussed in refs. 9 and 10.
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DYTE, C. Possible New Approach to the Chemical Control of Plant Feeding Insects. Nature 216, 298 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1038/216298a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/216298a0
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