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

Citation

Duthie AB, Mangan R, McKeon CR, Tinsley MC & Bussière LF (2023) resevol: An R package for spatially explicit models of pesticide resistance given evolving pest genomes. Noble R (Editor) PLOS Computational Biology, 19 (12), Art. No.: e1011691. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011691

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.

Keywords
Computational Theory and Mathematics; Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience; Genetics; Molecular Biology; Ecology; Modeling and Simulation; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

Journal
PLOS Computational Biology: Volume 19, Issue 12