Impaired Odor Sensitivity In Field-Resistant German Cockroach

A field population that developed high resistance to pyrethroids and fipronil was used to observe their response to fipronil-containing commercial gel bait and compared with laboratory susceptible strain. In addition, next-generation sequencing (NGS) was conducted to identify mutations in the German cockroach genome associated with odor-sensitivity receptors. The result shows that the field-resistant population spent 1498.6 ± 113.74 s visiting the commercial gel bait, significantly longer than in laboratory susceptible strain (24.3 ± 2.1 s). In addition, 80% of male cockroaches were not attracted to the gel bait. We identified two candidate genes of field-resistant populations. Their expression levels were significantly varied compared to laboratory-susceptible populations, suggesting potential functions for these genes in disrupting their olfactory perception.