THE GENETIC, MOLECULAR AND PHENOTYPIC CONSEQUENCES OF SELECTION FOR INSECTICIDE RESISTANCE

Studies of insecticide resistance allow theories of the adaptive proce ss to be tested where the selective agent, the insecticide, is unambig uously defined. Thus, the consequences of selection of phenotypic vari ation can be investigated in genetic, biochemical, molecular, populati on biological and, most recently, developmental contexts. Are the opti ons limited biochemically and molecularly? Is the genetic mechanism mo nogenic or polygenic, general or population/species specific? Are fitn ess and developmental patterns associated? These questions of general evolutionary significance can be considered with experimental approach es to determine how insecticide resistance evolves.