resevol: An R package for spatially explicit models of pesticide resistance given evolving pest genomes

PLoS Comput Biol. 2023 Dec 4;19(12):e1011691. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011691. eCollection 2023 Dec.

Abstract

The evolution of pesticide resistance is a widespread problem with potentially severe consequences for global food security. We introduce the resevol R package, which simulates individual-based models of pests with evolving genomes that produce complex, polygenic, and covarying traits affecting pest life history and pesticide resistance. Simulations are modelled on a spatially-explicit and highly customisable landscape in which crop and pesticide application and rotation can vary, making the package a highly flexible tool for both general and tactical models of pest management and resistance evolution. We present the key features of the resevol package and demonstrate its use for a simple example simulating pests with two covarying traits. The resevol R package is open source under GNU Public License. All source code and documentation are available on GitHub.

MeSH terms

  • Drug Resistance
  • Pest Control
  • Pesticides* / pharmacology
  • Software

Substances

  • Pesticides

Grants and funding

This software was developed as part of the project for Enhancing Diversity to Overcome Resistance Evolution (ENDORSE) led by Luc Bussière, Ricardo Polanczyk, and Matthew Tinsley (Co-Investigators: Nils Bunnefeld, Yelitza Colmenarez, Natália Corniani, Renata de Lima, Brad Duthie, Steve Edgington, Leonardo Fraceto, Belinda Luke, and Rosie Mangan). The ENDORSE project is a joint Newton funded international partnership between the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) in the UK and the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) in Brazil under BBSRC award reference BB/S018956/1 and FAPESP award reference 2018/21089-3. ENDORSE is a partnership among Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), the University of Stirling (UoS), and the Centre for Agricultural and Biosciences International (CABI). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.