Bulletin of Insectology 79: 89-98, doi: 10.3897/bull.insectology.190015
Knockdown Resistance (kdr) in Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel (VGSC) gene of Aedes aegypti from Padang (West Sumatra) and Bogor (West Java), Indonesia
Onessy Regina Rustan‡, Haliza Fawwaz Ayuningtyas§, Siti Nurjanah|, Titik Kartika|, Sri Utami|, Dita Meisyara|, Beni Ernawan¶, Hadian Iman Sasmita#¤, Vina Rizkawati§, Hasmiwati Hasmiwati‡, Wan Fatma Zuharah«, Ikhsan Guswenrivo|‡ Faculty of Medicine, Andalas University, Padang, Indonesia§ Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, State University of Jakarta, East Jakarta, Indonesia| Research Center for Applied Zoology, National Research and Innovation Agency, Bogor, Indonesia¶ Research Center for Public Health and Nutrition, National Research and Innovation Agency, Tangerang Selatan, Indonesia# Department of Public Health Science, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, United States of America¤ Research Center for Radiation Process Technology, National Research and Innovation Agency, Tangerang Selatan, Indonesia« School for Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia
Corresponding author: Ikhsan Guswenrivo ( ikhsan.guswenrivo@brin.go.id ) Academic editor: Maria Luisa Dindo © Onessy Regina Rustan, Haliza Fawwaz Ayuningtyas, Siti Nurjanah, Titik Kartika, Sri Utami, Dita Meisyara, Beni Ernawan, Hadian Iman Sasmita, Vina Rizkawati, Hasmiwati Hasmiwati, Wan Fatma Zuharah, Ikhsan Guswenrivo. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Rustan OR, Ayuningtyas HF, Nurjanah S, Kartika T, Utami S, Meisyara D, Ernawan B, Sasmita HI, Rizkawati V, Hasmiwati H, Zuharah WF, Guswenrivo I (2026) Knockdown Resistance (kdr) in Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel (VGSC) gene of Aedes aegypti from Padang (West Sumatra) and Bogor (West Java), Indonesia. Bulletin of Insectology 79: 89-98. https://doi.org/10.3897/bull.insectology.190015 |  |
Abstract
Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) remains a major public health challenge in Indonesia, where Aedes aegypti is the primary vector. Pyrethroids, particularly permethrin and deltamethrin, are widely used for vector control. However, their prolonged use has led to resistance, largely mediated by knockdown resistance (kdr) mutations in the voltage-gated sodium channel (VGSC) gene. This study aimed to determine the mortality status, frequency, and distribution of kdr mutations, as well as their association with phenotypic resistance in Ae. aegypti populations from Padang City, Bogor City, and Bogor Regency. Adult females were subjected to World Health Organization (WHO) susceptibility bioassays. Genomic DNA from individual specimens was analyzed to detect kdr mutations using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequencing. All populations showed very low mortality (1–37%) with both insecticides after 24 h, indicating high resistance. Kaplan–Meier analysis showed near-complete survival under permethrin for all populations, while deltamethrin caused greater survival decline in Bogor City and Bogor Regency than Padang (log-rank: permethrin p = 0.051, deltamethrin p < 0.05).. Molecular analysis detected S989P, V1016G, and F1534C mutations, with mutant genotypes more prevalent than wild-type genotypes at all sites, and the highest frequencies were observed for all treatments. However, the association analysis showed no significant association between kdr mutations and phenotypic resistance (p > 0.05) in the study population. These findings demonstrate widespread pyrethroid resistance and high frequencies of kdr mutations, highlighting the need for larger sample sizes and more balanced sampling designs to better understand the role of kdr mutations in pyrethroid resistance.
Keywords
Bioassay, dengue, deltamethrin, molecular, mutations, permethrin