Etude des mécanismes de résistance du moustique Aedes aegypti aux insecticides pyréthrinoïdes : Apports des nouvelles technologies de séquençage ADN à l’identification de nouveaux marqueurs de résistance.

摘要

Mosquito control programs worldwide are increasingly threatened by resistance to pyrethroid insecticides (PYRs). In the dengue and chikungunya vector Aedes aegypti, the key resistance mechanisms include modifications in the protein targeted by insecticides (target-site mutations) and metabolic resistance, consisting in an increased insecticide biodegradation by so called detoxification enzymes. However, as opposed to target-site mutations, the molecular basis of metabolic resistance remains poorly understood. Most metabolic resistance genes have been detected by transcriptomic approaches based on their over-expressed in resistant populations, but genomic changes leading to these expression changes as well as structural changes in enzymes potentially involved in resistance remain unknown. In this context, this thesis aims at using next-generation sequencing approaches for characterizing PYR resistance mechanisms in the mosquito Ae. aegypti.The first chapter of this thesis describes a pilot study on laboratory insecticide-selected populations of Ae. aegypti. This study aims at investigating the benefits of next-generation sequencing for studying resistance mechanisms in mosquitoes. This study confirmed that detoxification enzymes play a key role in resistance, with several of them being over-expressed in resistant populations and a large cluster of cytochrome P450 genes showing a selection imprint associated with resistance to PYRs.The second chapter of this thesis describes a study conducted on natural mosquito populations from various continents. Combining genomic target enrichment (targeting about 800 genes potentially involved in resistance) and DNA-seq allowed unravelling genomic changes associated with resistance to the PYR deltamethrin. Comparing normalized sequencing coverage between resistant and susceptible populations identified significant copy number variations (CNVs) in several detoxification genes strongly associated to deltamethrin resistance. Non-synonymous mutations affecting detoxification enzymes associated to the resistance phenotype were also detected. Comparing resistance markers between populations from various continents revealed that genes/mutations associated with deltamethrin resistance are poorly conserved across continents, probably due to differences in the genetic background of populations but also differences in terms of demographic history and selection pressures.The third chapter describes an RNA-seq study performed on the same natural mosquito populations in order to cross-link transcriptomic data (gene expression and transcript polymorphism) with genomic data obtained from the previous study. Multiple detoxification enzymes were found over-transcribed in resistant populations linked with previously identified CNVs. Hundreds polymorphism variations were identified by targeted DNA-seq in cis-promoter regions of detoxification genes. Among them, several were associated with the upper-regulation of detoxification enzymes in resistant populations. Finally, cross-comparing polymorphism data obtain from DNA-seq and RNA-seq allowed investigating allele specific expression (ASE) events related to PYR resistance. Overall, this study confirmed the benefits of combining transcriptomic and genomic NGS approaches for studying the molecular basis of insecticide resistance.As a whole, this thesis not only contributed to better understand PYR resistance mechanisms in the dengue vector Ae. aegypti but also identified novel genomic markers of resistance opening the way for developing new molecular diagnostic to early detect and monitor resistance mechanisms in the field. This work also highlights the benefits of using NGS technologies for unravelling the molecular bases of adaptation in model organisms.