Rapid response to selection for increased esterase activity on small populations of an apomictic clone of Myzus persicae

It is generally thought that apomictic asexual reproduction produces offspring identical to the parent. In this paper we report changes that occur within a generation by selection on less than 25 offspring of an atypical strain of the aphid Myzus persicae starting from a single parthenogenetic mothe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 1980-01, Vol.285 (5765), p.502-503
Main Authors: Bunting, S, Van Emden, H.F
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
arthropod pests
Humanities and Social Sciences
letter
multidisciplinary
plant health
plant pests
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
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Summary:It is generally thought that apomictic asexual reproduction produces offspring identical to the parent. In this paper we report changes that occur within a generation by selection on less than 25 offspring of an atypical strain of the aphid Myzus persicae starting from a single parthenogenetic mother. These changes consist of variations in the amount of a particular esterase (E 4 ). The amount of this enzyme has already been shown to be correlated with levels of resistance to insecticides in different strains of this aphid 1 , and it has also been shown that E 4 binds and hydrolyses the activated form of the insecticide parathion 2 . Recombination between homologous chromosomes has been eliminated as the source of variation and it appears that gene amplification might be one explanation of this phenomenon. It is conceivable that this phenomenon is associated with rapid evolutionary events such as the evolution of resistance to insecticides.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/285502a0