Noninvolvement of the long terminal repeat of transposable element 17.6 in insecticide resistance in Drosophila

Waters and colleagues recently suggested [Waters, L. C., Zelhof, A. C., Shaw, B. J. & Ch'ang, L.-Y. (1992) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 89, 4855-4859] that an insertion of a long terminal repeat of transposable element 17.6 into the 3′ untranslated region of a P450 gene leads to susceptibility to the insecticide DDT in Drosophila melanogaster. We tested this hypothesis by screening lines from around the world and found that the presence or absence of a long terminal repeat was uncorrelated with resistance in 31 strains of D. melanogaster and Drosophila simulans. Thus we must reject the hypothesis that the insertion of a long terminal repeat leads to DDT susceptibility in Drosophila.