Evolution of the insecticide target <i>Rdl</i> in African <i>Anopheles</i> is driven by interspecific and interkaryotypic introgression

Abstract The evolution of insecticide resistance mechanisms in natural populations of Anopheles malaria vectors is a major public health concern across Africa. Using genome sequence data, we study the evolution of resistance mutations in the resistance to dieldrin locus ( Rdl ), a GABA receptor targeted by several insecticides, but most notably by the long-discontinued cyclodiene, dieldrin. The two Rdl resistance mutations ( 296G and 296S ) spread across West and Central African Anopheles via two independent hard selective sweeps that included likely compensatory nearby mutations, and were followed by a rare combination of introgression across species (from A. gambiae and A. arabiensis to A. coluzzii ) and across non-concordant karyotypes of the 2La chromosomal inversion. Rdl resistance evolved in the 1950s as the first known adaptation to a large-scale insecticide-based intervention, but the evolutionary lessons from this system highlight contemporary and future dangers for management strategies designed to combat development of resistance in malaria vectors.