Potential key genes involved in metabolic resistance to malathion in the southern house mosquito, Culex quinquefasciatus, and functional validation of CYP325BC1 and CYP9M12 as candidate genes using RNA interference.

Background: Metabolic detoxification is one of the major mechanisms contributing to the development of resistance in mosquitoes, including the southern house mosquito, Culex quinquefasciatus. The three major detoxification supergene families, cytochrome P450s, glutathione S-transferases and general esterases, have been demonstrated to play an important role in metabolic resistance. In this study, we performed differential gene expression analysis based on high-throughput transcriptome sequencing on samples from four experimental groups to give insight into key genes involved in metabolic resistance to malathion in Cx.