Cells have not blocked the evolution of extremely long life spans, like that of the bristlecone pine, which lives 5,000 years, or certain deep sea corals, whose age has been found to exceed 4,000 years.
Another critic wrote in 1994 of a "France suffering from a more profound sickness" than anybody then imagined: a "heavy and inert" state machinery that, if unreformed, would "block the evolution of society".
Such costs generally impede or, if the costs are sufficiently high, block the evolution of resistance.
If the microsporidian can indeed block the evolution of resistance, it will infect almost exclusively sensitive mosquitoes.
Discovering a way to block the evolution of insecticide resistance would be a major breakthrough for public health.
As the extent to which sensitivity is restored decreases, the effect of the biopesticide required to block the evolution of resistance increases.
At high effective coverage, it is not possible to block the evolution of resistance unless the restoration of sensitivity is complete (β = 1, dotted line).
Figure 2A describes a situation where all of the mosquitoes are infected and shows the increased cost of resistance necessary to block the evolution of resistance (i.e., to reduce the longevity of resistant mosquitoes below that of sensitive ones).
In conclusion, we suggest that manipulating the environment in a way that restores sensitivity to insecticides and increases the cost of resistance may help to manage the problem of insecticide resistance, and indeed may block the evolution of resistance.
It should be noted that, even if the biopesticide has no effect on sensitivity, it can block the evolution of resistance, if it sufficiently increases the cost of resistance (solid line).
