Exploring the windows of selection for insecticide and drug resistance evolution: May the selective force be with us

The evolution of resistance against xenobiotics such as herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, antimicrobials, antivirals and anticancer drugs is a major global challenge. Resistance evolution is driven by increased survival of resistant organisms in a xenobiotic environment relative to susceptible ones. The window of selection is the range of concentrations at which differential mortality is observed and is used as a framework to identify concentrations at which selection occurs, or identify the length of time this window is open at inevitably waning concentrations. Often missing from this framework is the role of interspecific competition at concentrations for which both strains survive: at low concentrations. Here I will present data we collected on Aedes aegypti mosquitoes of different genotypes on selective pressures in the presence and absence of insecticides, as well as discuss how we could use such data to predict optimal resistance management strategies.