Honors College Theses

Publication Date

2024

Major

Biology (B.S.B.)

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (open access)

Faculty Mentor

Joshua Gibson

Abstract

Nasonia vitripennis and Nasonia giraulti are parasitoid wasps that use fly pupae as hosts to lay their eggs. These two species can produce hybrids when crossed together. However, hybrids are only partially viable and suffer 50-80% mortality from egg to adult development. The highest mortality occurs when N. giraulti females are used in the cross. Previous research shows that hybrids with an N. vitripennis allele of a mitochondrial-targeted gene within a specific locus on chromosome 5 have incompatible interactions with the N. giraulti mitochondria, which are maternally inherited. Collaborators at the University of Rochester have generated an introgression strain of Nasonia, replacing the incompatible N. vitripennis locus with a compatible N. giraulti locus. The rest of the genome remains N. vitripennis. Egg-to-adult mortality data was collected to analyze the differences in mortality rates of F2 hybrids resulting from these two different N. vitripennis strains (introgression and nonintrogression) when crossed with N. giraulti females. To assess mortality in each cross, the number of eggs and adults from each F1 hybrid female were compared to determine hybrid mortality rates. The outcome was a partial rescue with a three-fold increase in the survival rate of the cross containing the introgression strain. The results also help further our understanding of the role of mitochondrial function in hybrid mortality.

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Entomology Commons

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