Male killing is caused by diverse microbial taxa in a wide range of arthropods. This phenomenon poses important challenges to understanding the dynamics of sex ratios and host-pathogen interactions. However, the mechanisms of male killing are largely unknown. Evidence from one case in Drosophila suggests that bacteria can target components of the male-specific sex-determination pathway. Here, w...

Linking the evolution of the phenotype to the underlying genotype is a key aim of evolutionary genetics and is crucial to our understanding of how natural selection shapes a trait. Here, we consider the genetic basis of sex allocation behavior in the parasitoid wasp Nasonia vitripennis using a transcriptomics approach. Females allocate offspring sex in line with the local mate competition (LMC)...

The research into the Drosophila melanogaster sex-determining system has been at the basis of all further research on insect sex determination. This further research has made it clear that, for most insect species, the presence of sufficient functional Transformer (TRA) protein in the early embryonic stage is essential for female sexual development. In Hymenoptera, functional analysis of sex de...

A centric fragment was generated during the introgression of a chromosome region from Nasonia giraulti into N. vitripennis. This neo B chromosome carries the N. giraulti or 123+ gene for wild-type eye color. Using this phenotypic effect, the transmission of this chromosome was analyzed. The supernumerary chromosome showed less than Mendelian segregation rate in meiosis and some mitotic instabil...

Males of the parasitoid wasp Nasonia vitripennis showed no innate preference for blue versus yellow or for green versus brown. They learned to associate color with mates, but their ability to do so depended on the color used and the strength of the reward. Specifically, males learned to associate brown or green with a reward of many virgin females. With fewer females, fewer training periods, or...