Mosquitoes have been known as transmitters of a wide variety of disease agents, such as eukaryotic pathogens like Plasmodium, and viruses like the yellow fever virus and West Nile virus. Mosquito-borne diseases, such as malaria, are one of the main causes of human mortality worldwide. Conventional approaches to mosquito control have relied on the application of insecticides. Indeed, massive spraying of insecticides has greatly limited diseases in some areas and even eradicated malaria in a few places in the past. However, the mosquito-borne diseases are now resurgent again. One of the important reasons is the difficulty in the control of the mosquito vectors that have developed resistance to insecticides. Thus, understanding of resistance development and mechanisms of resistance has been extremely important for preventing or minimizing the spread and evolution of resistance and reducing the prevalence of mosquito-bone diseases. To understand the potential of insecticide resistance development in mosquito population, cross resistance patterns, and mechanisms involved in resistance, we examined the level of resistance to several insecticides in Aedes albopictus collected from Alabama and investigated the roles of cytochrome P450 monooxygenases and hydrolases in insecticides resistance of Aedes albopictus.
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