F2 screen variations and associated statistics.

Abstract

The F2 screen is a flexible methodology used to estimate the frequency of resistance alleles (R) in an insect population. We have developed several alternative protocols, along with the associated statistics, to conduct an F2 screen with mated or unmated individuals, random and nonrandom mating of F1 adults, and the screening of multiple lines together in the F2 screen. Our protocols describe how to perform and analyze an F2 screen starting with unmated P1 as an alternative to mated females. A randomly mated population of > or = 50 F1 adults should be sufficient to detect R alleles > 99% of the time. If nonrandom mating occurs in the F2 screen, it is most likely to be positive assortative mating, and this would improve the probability of detecting an R allele. Pair mating the F1 adults greatly increases costs of the screen while providing a small, but negligible improvement in detecting R alleles. The number of screens may be reduced by more than two-thirds by screening multiple lines together. These methodological variants show the F2 screen to be much more robust than originally described.