The pesticide toxicology and pest resistance team, led by Professor Li Jianhong from Huazhong Agricultural University's (HZAU) College of Plant Science & Technology, has recently published a research paper titled "Upregulation of a cytochrome P450 gene, CYP6B50, confers multi-insecticide resistance in Spodoptera frugiperda" in the Journal of Advanced Research.
This study used various experimental methods, including RNA interference, CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing, and metabolic assays. These approaches revealed the crucial role of the cytochrome P450 gene CYP6B50 in the multi-insecticide resistance of Spodoptera frugiperda, offering novel insights for the investigation and management of agricultural pest resistance mechanisms.
The research team identified a multi-insecticide-resistant strain of Spodoptera frugiperda through indoor screening. Transcriptome sequencing and RT-qPCR analysis showed significant overexpression of the P450 gene CYP6B50 in this resistant strain, inducible by various insecticides. Further investigations demonstrated that silencing or knocking out the CYP6B50 gene significantly increased the sensitivity of resistant Spodoptera frugiperda to various insecticides. Conversely, introducing this gene into fruit flies substantially elevated their resistance levels. Additionally, insecticide metabolism experiments confirmed the capability of CYP6B50 to metabolize multiple insecticides, with molecular docking results confirming its strong binding affinity with these chemicals.

The upregulation of CYP6B50 expression mediates multi-drug resistance in the Spodoptera frugiperda. [Photo/news.hzau.edu.cn]