Induced tolerance from a sublethal insecticide leads to cross-tolerance to other insecticides.
As global pesticide use increases, the ability to rapidly respond to pesticides by increasing tolerance has important implications for the persistence of nontarget organisms. A recent study of larval amphibians discovered that increased tolerance can be induced by an early exposure to low concentrations of a pesticide. Since natural systems are often exposed to a variety of pesticides that vary in mode of action, we need to know whether the induction of increased tolerance to one pesticide confers increased tolerance to other pesticides. Using larval wood frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus), we investigated whether induction of increased tolerance to the insecticide carbaryl (AChE-inhibitor) can induce increased tolerance to other insecticides that have the same mode of action (chlorpyrifos, malathion) or a different mode of action (Na(+)channel-interfering insecticides; permethrin, cypermethrin). We found that embryonic exposure to sublethal concentrations of carbaryl induced higher tolerance to carbaryl and increased cross-tolerance to malathion and cypermethrin but not to chlorpyrifos or permethrin. In one case, the embryonic exposure to carbaryl induced tolerance in a nonlinear pattern (hormesis). These results demonstrate that that the newly discovered phenomenon of induced tolerance also provides induced cross-tolerance that is not restricted to pesticides with the same mode of action.