CRISPR/Cas9‐mediated knockout of NlCYP6CS1 gene reveals its role in detoxification of insecticides in Nilaparvata lugens (Hemiptera: Delphacidae)

BACKGROUND The brown planthopper (Nilaparvata lugens) is one of the major rice insect pests in Asia. Recently, high levels of insecticide resistance have been frequently reported and cytochrome P450 monooxygenase (P450)‐mediated metabolic detoxification is a common resistance mechanism in N. lugens. However, there has been no persuasive genetic method to prove the role of P450s in insecticide resistance in N. lugens. RESULTS Here, CRISPR/Cas9 system was used to disrupt the P450 gene NlCYP6CS1 to elucidate its role in insecticide resistance in field populations of N. lugens. We successfully constructed a homozygous strain (Nl6CS1‐KO) with a 5‐bp deletion and 1‐bp insertion mutation of NlCYP6CS1. Compared with a background resistant strain (Nl‐R), the susceptibility of knockout strain Nl6CS1‐KO to imidacloprid, nitenpyram, thiamethoxam, dinotefuran, and pymetrozine was increased by 2.3‐, 3.4‐, 7.0‐, 4.2‐ and 3.9‐fold, respectively, but not significantly changed to triflumezopyrim, chlorpyrifos and buprofezin. Life table analysis demonstrated that the Nl6CS1‐KO strain resembled the Nl‐R strain in terms of egg and nymph developmental duration and adult lifespan, but differed from the Nl‐R strain in the survival rate of eggs and nymphs, reproduction, and body weight. CONCLUSIONS Our study demonstrates the effect of functional deletion of NlCYP6CS1 on multiple insecticide resistance in N. lugens. For the first time, we applied CRISPR/Cas9 system to reveal the mechanism of insecticide resistance in N. lugens, which may shed light on similar studies in other hemipteran insects. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry. CRISPR/Cas9‐mediated knockout of the NlCYP6CS1 reveals role in detoxification of insecticides in Nilaparvata lugens.