Identification of polymorphisms in Cyrtorhinus lividipennis RDL subunit contributing to fipronil sensitivity

Abstract As one of the most important predatory enemies, the miridbug, Cyrtorhinus lividipennis , plays an important role in rice planthoppers control, such as Nilaparvata lugens (brown planthopper). In order to compare insecticide selectivity between C. lividipennis and N. lugens , the contact acute toxicities of six insecticides (diazoxon, paraoxon, carbaryl, fenobucarb, fipronil and ethofenprox) were monitored. The results showed that all tested insecticides were more toxic to C. lividipennis than to N. lugens and fipronil had the biggest difference. The RDL subunit (Cl-RDL) was cloned from C. lividipennis and a RDL isoform (Cl-RDL-In) was also found with 31 amino acids insertion in RDL intracellular region. In order to understand the role of the insertion on insecticide sensitivities, three subunits (Nl-RDL, Cl-RDL and Cl-RDL-In) were constructed to obtain the functional receptors in Xenopus oocytes and the fipronil sensitivities were detected by the voltage-clamp technique. Nl-RDL ( I C 50 = 32.36 ± 4.07 µM) was more insensitive to fipronil than Cl-RDL ( I C 50 = 6.47 ± 1.12 µM). The insertion in Cl-RDL significantly reduced fipronil sensitivity with I C 50 value in Cl-RDL-In of 16.83 ± 2.30 µM. Interestingly, after the elution of fipronil, the current response of Cl-RDL-In appeared obvious recovery, which were not observed in Cl-RDL and Nl-RDL. It might imply that the insertion played a special role in fipronil sensitivity.