Epitranscriptomic regulation of insecticide resistance

-methyladenosine (m A) is the most prevalent messenger RNA modification in eukaryotes and an important posttranscriptional regulator of gene expression. However, the biological roles of m A in most insects remain largely unknown. Here, we show that m A regulates a cytochrome P450 gene ( ) in the global whitefly pest, , leading to insecticide resistance. Investigation of the regulation of , which confers resistance to the insecticide thiamethoxam, revealed a mutation in the 5' untranslated region of this gene in resistant strains that introduces a predicted m A site. We provide several lines of evidence that mRNA methylation of the adenine at this position, in combination with modified expression of m A writers, acts to increase expression of and resistance. Collectively, these results provide an example of the epitranscriptomic regulation of the xenobiotic response in insects and implicate the m A regulatory axis in the development of insecticide resistance.