Enhancement of Tolerance against Flonicamid in Solenopsis invicta Queens through Overexpression of CYP6AQ83

Solenopsis invicta, an extremely destructive invasive species, has rapidly spread in China, with queens exhibiting chemical tolerance. In this study, bioassays were conducted on S. invicta colonies collected in Nanchong, revealing that the LC50 value of flonicamid for queens (3.91 mg/L) was significantly higher than that for workers (1.07 mg/L). Comparative analysis of transcriptomes of workers and queens treated with flonicamid revealed that differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were significantly enriched in the metabolism of xenobiotics by cytochrome P450 and drug metabolism by cytochrome P450 pathways. Based on the screening of transcriptome data, CYP6AQ83 might be involved in the detoxification metabolism of flonicamid in queens. After RNA interference, the sensitivity of queens to flonicamid was significantly increased by 30% in the treatment of the dsCYP6AQ83 group. Furthermore, heterologous overexpression of CYP6AQ83 in Drosophila melanogaster also significantly enhanced the tolerance against flonicamid. These results indicated that the overexpression of CYP6AQ83 in the queen enhances the tolerance against flonicamid.