Characterization of a uridine diphosphate (UDP)-glycosyltransferase gene associated with abamectin resistance in two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae.

Uridine diphosphate (UDP)-glycosyltransferase (UGT) belongs to detoxification enzyme glycosylating lipophilic xenobiotic compounds in various living organisms. Tetranychus urticae is a notorious pest due to its significant threat to crop production and serious resistance problem worldwide. However, the function of UGT gene in contributing to pesticide resistance in T. urticae remained largely unknown. In this study, it was found that the laboratory selected abamectin-resistant (AbR) strain had developed over 20,000-fold resistance compared with the susceptible strain (SS). After being treated with abamectin, the activities of UGTs, and the transcription of TuUGT201D3 in the AbR strain were significantly higher than those in SS. Molecular docking indicated that the UGT201D3 protein exhibited high binding capacity with abamectin, suggesting the potential interaction between them. Furthermore, knock-down the transcription of TuUGT201D3 led to the decrease of activities of UGTs, in addition, the mortalities of AbR strain (58.4%) will significantly increase compared to control (41.1%) under 48 h of abamectin treatment. Those findings elucidated that TuUGT201D3 was correlated with abamectin resistance in T. urticae.