| genome-wide association between dna methylation and alternative splicing in an invertebrate. | gene bodies are the most evolutionarily conserved targets of dna methylation in eukaryotes. however, the regulatory functions of gene body dna methylation remain largely unknown. dna methylation in insects appears to be primarily confined to exons. two recent studies in apis mellifera (honeybee) and nasonia vitripennis (jewel wasp) analyzed transcription and dna methylation data for one gene in each species to demonstrate that exon-specific dna methylation may be associated with alternative spli ... | 2012 | 22978521 |
| parasitization by scleroderma guani influences expression of superoxide dismutase genes in tenebrio molitor. | superoxide dismutase (sod) is an antioxidant enzyme involved in detoxifying reactive oxygen species. in this study, we identified genes encoding the extracellular and intracellular copper-zinc sods (eccuznsod and iccuznsod) and a manganese sod (mnsod) in the yellow mealworm beetle, tenebrio molitor. the cdnas for eccuznsod, iccuznsod, and mnsod, respectively, encode 24.55, 15.81, and 23.14 kda polypeptides, which possess structural features typical of other insect sods. they showed 20-94% identi ... | 2014 | 25042129 |
| oligonucleotide primers for targeted amplification of single-copy nuclear genes in apocritan hymenoptera. | published nucleotide sequence data from the mega-diverse insect order hymenoptera (sawflies, bees, wasps, and ants) are taxonomically scattered and still inadequate for reconstructing a well-supported phylogenetic tree for the order. the analysis of comprehensive multiple gene data sets obtained via targeted pcr could provide a cost-effective solution to this problem. however, oligonucleotide primers for pcr amplification of nuclear genes across a wide range of hymenopteran species are still sca ... | 2012 | 22768134 |
| allatotropin, leucokinin and akh in honey bees and other hymenoptera. | in the honey bee no allatotropin gene has been found, even though allatotropin stimulates the synthesis of juvenile hormone in this species. we report here that honey bees and other hymenoptera do have a typical allatotropin gene, although the peptides predicted have a somewhat different structure from that of other insect allatotropins. polyclonal antisera to honey bee allatotropin reacted with material in the neurohemal organs of the segmental nerves of abdominal ganglia. we were unable to fin ... | 2012 | 22406227 |
| raalin, a transcript enriched in the honey bee brain, is a remnant of genomic rearrangement in hymenoptera. | we identified a predicted compact cysteine-rich sequence in the honey bee genome that we called 'raalin'. raalin transcripts are enriched in the brain of adult honey bee workers and drones, with only minimum expression in other tissues or in pre-adult stages. open-reading frame (orf) homologues of raalin were identified in the transcriptomes of fruit flies, mosquitoes and moths. the raalin-like gene from drosophila melanogaster encodes for a short secreted protein that is maximally expressed in ... | 2012 | 22404450 |
| comparative analyses of dna methylation and sequence evolution using nasonia genomes. | the functional and evolutionary significance of dna methylation in insect genomes remains to be resolved. nasonia is well situated for comparative analyses of dna methylation and genome evolution, since the genomes of a moderately distant outgroup species as well as closely related sibling species are available. using direct sequencing of bisulfite-converted dna, we uncovered a substantial level of dna methylation in 17 of 18 nasonia vitripennis genes and a strong correlation between methylation ... | 2011 | 21693438 |
| maternal control of haplodiploid sex determination in the wasp nasonia. | all insects in the order hymenoptera have haplodiploid sex determination, in which males emerge from haploid unfertilized eggs and females are diploid. sex determination in the honeybee apis mellifera is controlled by the complementary sex determination (csd) locus, but the mechanisms controlling sex determination in other hymenoptera without csd are unknown. we identified the sex-determination system of the parasitic wasp nasonia, which has no csd locus. instead, maternal input of nasonia vitri ... | 2010 | 20431014 |
| inventory and phylogenomic distribution of meiotic genes in nasonia vitripennis and among diverse arthropods. | the parasitoid jewel wasp nasonia vitripennis reproduces by haplodiploidy (arrhenotokous parthenogenesis). in diploid females, meiosis occurs during oogenesis, but in haploid males spermatogenesis is ameiotic and involves a single equational division. here we describe the phylogenomic distribution of meiotic genes in n. vitripennis and in 10 additional arthropods. homologues for 39 meiosis-related genes (including seven meiosis-specific genes) were identified in n. vitripennis. the meiotic genes ... | 2010 | 20167026 |
| metabolic enzymes associated with xenobiotic and chemosensory responses in nasonia vitripennis. | the numbers of glutathione s-transferase, cytochrome p450 and esterase genes in the genome of the hymenopteran parasitoid nasonia vitripennis are about twice those found in the genome of another hymenopteran, the honeybee apis mellifera. some of the difference is associated with clades of these families implicated in xenobiotic resistance in other insects and some is in clades implicated in hormone and pheromone metabolism. the data support the hypothesis that the eusocial behaviour of the honey ... | 2010 | 20167025 |
| the insect chemoreceptor superfamily of the parasitoid jewel wasp nasonia vitripennis. | chemoreception is important for locating food, mates and other resources in many insects, including the parasitoid jewel wasp nasonia vitripennis. in the insect chemoreceptor superfamily, nasonia has 58 gustatory receptor (gr) genes, of which 11 are pseudogenes, leaving 47 apparently intact proteins encoded. no carbon dioxide receptors, two candidate sugar receptors, a dmgr43a orthologue, and several additional gr lineages were identified, including significant gene subfamily expansions related ... | 2010 | 20167023 |
| the expression and phylogenetics of the inhibitor cysteine knot peptide oclp1 in the honey bee apis mellifera. | small cysteine-rich peptides have diverse functions in insects including antimicrobial defense, phenoloxidase activity regulation, and toxic inhibition of ion channels of prey or predator. we combined bioinformatics and measurements of transcript abundance to start characterizing amoclp1, a recently discovered inhibitor cysteine knot peptide in the honey bee apis mellifera. we found that the genomes of ants, bees, and the wasp nasonia vitripennis encode orthologous sequences indicating that oclp ... | 2014 | 24721445 |
| whole-genome dna methylation profile of the jewel wasp (nasonia vitripennis). | the epigenetic mark of dna methylation, the addition of a methyl (ch3) group to a cytosine residue, has been extensively studied in many mammalian genomes and, although it is commonly found at the promoter regions of genes, it is also involved in a number of different biological functions. in other complex animals, such as social insects, dna methylation has been determined to be involved in caste differentiation and to occur primarily in gene bodies. the role of methylation in nonsocial insects ... | 2014 | 24381191 |
| genomic imprinting and maternal effect genes in haplodiploid sex determination. | 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 determination by knockdown studies of sex-determining genes has only been performed for 2 species. the fi ... | 2014 | 24356125 |
| additional evidence for the genomic imprinting model of sex determination in the haplodiploid wasp nasonia vitripennis: isolation of biparental diploid males after x-ray mutagenesis. | the primary sex-determining signal in the haplodiploid wasp nasonia vitripennis is not known. in haplodiploid reproduction, unfertilized eggs typically develop into uniparental haploid males and fertilized eggs into biparental diploid females. although this reproductive strategy is common to all hymenoptera, sex-determination is not strictly specified by the number of genome copies inherited. furthermore, primary sex-determining signals differ among haplodiploid species. in the honeybee, for exa ... | 2006 | 16552430 |
| transcriptome analysis provides insight into venom evolution in a seed-parasitic wasp, megastigmus spermotrophus. | one of the most striking host range transitions is the evolution of plant parasitism from animal parasitism. parasitoid wasps that have secondarily evolved to attack plants (ie gall wasps and seed-feeders) demonstrate intimate associations with their hosts, yet the mechanism of plant-host manipulation is currently not known. there is, however, emerging evidence suggesting that ovipositional secretions play a role in plant manipulation. to investigate whether parasites have modified pre-existing ... | 2016 | 27286234 |
| does pupal communication influence wolbachia-mediated cytoplasmic incompatibility? | wolbachia are widespread endosymbiotic bacteria found in terrestrial arthropods and filarial nematodes [1]. in insects, wolbachia generally rely on diverse strategies to manipulate their host's reproduction and favor their own vertical transmission through infected eggs [2]. one such mechanism is a sterility syndrome called 'cytoplasmic incompatibility'. cytoplasmic incompatibility occurs at fertilization, when a spermatozoon from a wolbachia-infected male fertilizes an uninfected egg. in this c ... | 2017 | 28118585 |
| simple method for fluorescence dna in situ hybridization to squashed chromosomes. | dna in situ hybridization (dna ish) is a commonly used method for mapping sequences to specific chromosome regions. this approach is particularly effective at mapping highly repetitive sequences to heterochromatic regions, where computational approaches face prohibitive challenges. here we describe a streamlined protocol for dna ish that circumvents formamide washes that are standard steps in other dna ish protocols. our protocol is optimized for hybridization with short single strand dna probes ... | 2015 | 25591075 |
| comparisons of the embryonic development of drosophila, nasonia, and tribolium. | studying the embryogenesis of diverse insect species is crucial to understanding insect evolution. here, we review current advances in understanding the development of two emerging model organisms: the wasp nasonia vitripennis and the beetle tribolium castaneum in comparison with the well-studied fruit fly drosophila melanogaster. although nasonia represents the most basally branching order of holometabolous insects, it employs a derived long germband mode of embryogenesis, more like that of dro ... | 2017 | 23801665 |
| identification and characterization of nasonia pax genes. | pax genes are a group of critical developmental transcriptional regulators in both invertebrates and vertebrates, characterized by the presence of a paired dna-binding domain. pax proteins also often contain an octapeptide motif and a c-terminal homeodomain. the genome of nasonia vitripennis (hymenoptera) has recently become available, and analysis of this genome alongside apis mellifera allowed us to contribute to the phylogeny of this gene family in insects. nasonia, a parasitic wasp, has inde ... | 2010 | 20167022 |
| the distribution of microsatellites in the nasonia parasitoid wasp genome. | microsatellites are important molecular markers used in numerous genetic contexts. despite this widespread use, the evolutionary processes governing microsatellite distribution and diversity remain controversial. here, we present results on the distribution of microsatellites of three species in the parasitic wasp genus nasonia generated by an in silico data-mining approach. our results show that the overall microsatellite density in nasonia is comparable to that of the honey bee, but much highe ... | 2010 | 20167020 |
| transfers of mitochondrial dna to the nuclear genome in the wasp nasonia vitripennis. | many organisms carry nuclear sequences of mitochondrial origin (numts). we have identified 76 numts in 25 genomic locations in the jewel wasp nasonia vitripennis. the total amount of numts in nasonia is 42 972 bp exceeding over four-fold that found in tribolium castaneum and almost fifty-fold that found in drosophila melanogaster, whereas apis mellifera has an even larger number of numts in its genome (over 230 kb). the nasonia numts were inserted by multiple independent events and frequently in ... | 2010 | 20167015 |
| dual mode of embryonic development is highlighted by expression and function of nasonia pair-rule genes. | embryonic anterior-posterior patterning is well understood in drosophila, which uses 'long germ' embryogenesis, in which all segments are patterned before cellularization. in contrast, most insects use 'short germ' embryogenesis, wherein only head and thorax are patterned in a syncytial environment while the remainder of the embryo is generated after cellularization. we use the wasp nasonia (nv) to address how the transition from short to long germ embryogenesis occurred. maternal and gap gene e ... | 2014 | 24599282 |
| the cys-loop ligand-gated ion channel gene superfamily of the parasitoid wasp, nasonia vitripennis. | members of the cys-loop ligand-gated ion channel (cyslgic) superfamily mediate chemical neurotransmission and are studied extensively as potential targets of drugs used to treat neurological disorders, such as alzheimer's disease. insect cys-loop lgics also have central roles in the nervous system and are targets of highly successful insecticides. here, we describe the cyslgic superfamily of the parasitoid wasp, nasonia vitripennis, which is emerging as a highly useful model organism and is depl ... | 2010 | 20087392 |
| a new embryonic pattern in parasitic wasps: divergence in early development may not be associated with lifestyle. | comparative embryogenesis of encarsia formosa and encarsia pergandiella (hymenoptera aphelinidae), two endoparasitoids of whiteflies (hemiptera aleyrodidae), revealed two strongly diverging developmental patterns. indeed, the centrolecithal anhydropic egg of e. formosa developed through a superficial cleavage, as it occurs in nasonia vitripennis, apis mellifera, and drosophila melanogaster. in contrast, the alecithal hydropic egg of e. pergandiella developed through holoblastic cleavage within a ... | 2013 | 24261443 |
| origin and evolution of a new exon of 14-3-3ξ in bees and phylogenetic analysis. | mutually exclusive splicing, one type of alternative splicing, involves selection of alternatively spliced exons arranged in tandem and creates protein products with substitution of one segment of the amino acid sequence for another. previous studies revealed that exon 5 of 14-3-3ξ from apis mellifera (western honeybee) had three mutually exclusive exons, while orthologous exon of nasonia vitripennis (parasitic wasp) had only two, suggesting that cases of exon gain or loss might have happened du ... | 2013 | 23706076 |
| insect wing membrane topography is determined by the dorsal wing epithelium. | the drosophila wing consists of a transparent wing membrane supported by a network of wing veins. previously, we have shown that the wing membrane cuticle is not flat but is organized into ridges that are the equivalent of one wing epithelial cell in width and multiple cells in length. these cuticle ridges have an anteroposterior orientation in the anterior wing and a proximodistal orientation in the posterior wing. the precise topography of the wing membrane is remarkable because it is a fusion ... | 2013 | 23316434 |
| quercetin-metabolizing cyp6as enzymes of the pollinator apis mellifera (hymenoptera: apidae). | although the honey bee (apis mellifera) genome contains far fewer cytochrome p450 genes associated with xenobiotic metabolism than other insect genomes sequenced to date, the cyp6as subfamily, apparently unique to hymenopterans, has undergone an expansion relative to the genome of the jewel wasp (nasonia vitripennis). the relative dominance of this family in the honey bee genome is suggestive of a role in processing phytochemicals encountered by honey bees in their relatively unusual diet of hon ... | 2009 | 19737624 |
| the fruitless gene in nasonia displays complex sex-specific splicing and contains new zinc finger domains. | the transcription factor fruitless exerts a broad range of functions during drosophila development, the most apparent of which is the determination of sexual behavior in males. although fruitless sequences are found in other insect orders, little is known about fruitless structure and function outside diptera. we have performed a thorough analysis of fruitless transcripts in the haplo-diploid wasp nasonia vitripennis and found both sex-specific and non-sex-specific transcripts similar to those f ... | 2009 | 19349644 |
| sex determination in the hymenoptera. | the dominant and ancestral mode of sex determination in the hymenoptera is arrhenotokous parthenogenesis, in which diploid females develop from fertilized eggs and haploid males develop from unfertilized eggs. we discuss recent progress in the understanding of the genetic and cytoplasmic mechanisms that make arrhenotoky possible. the best-understood mode of sex determination in the hymenoptera is complementary sex determination (csd), in which diploid males are produced under conditions of inbre ... | 2008 | 17803453 |
| the origin of centrosomes in parthenogenetic hymenopteran insects. | a longstanding enigma has been the origin of maternal centrosomes that facilitate parthenogenetic development in hymenopteran insects. in young embryos, hundreds of microtubule-organizing centers (mtocs) are assembled completely from maternal components. two of these mtocs join the female pronucleus to set up the first mitotic spindle in unfertilized embryos and drive their development. these mtocs appear to be canonical centrosomes because they contain gamma-tubulin, cp190, and centrioles and t ... | 2006 | 16631588 |
| improvement in the prediction of the translation initiation site through balancing methods, inclusion of acquired knowledge and addition of features to sequences of mrna. | the accurate prediction of the initiation of translation in sequences of mrna is an important activity for genome annotation. however, obtaining an accurate prediction is not always a simple task and can be modeled as a problem of classification between positive sequences (protein codifiers) and negative sequences (non-codifiers). the problem is highly imbalanced because each molecule of mrna has a unique translation initiation site and various others that are not initiators. therefore, this stu ... | 2011 | 22369295 |
| extensive zygotic control of the anteroposterior axis in the wasp nasonia vitripennis. | insect axis formation is best understood in drosophila melanogaster, where rapid anteroposterior patterning of zygotic determinants is directed by maternal gene products. the earliest zygotic control is by gap genes, which determine regions of several contiguous segments and are largely conserved in insects. we have asked genetically whether early zygotic patterning genes control similar anteroposterior domains in the parasitoid wasp nasonia vitripennis as in drosophila. nasonia is advantageous ... | 1999 | 9895318 |
| sex chromosomes evolved from independent ancestral linkage groups in winged insects. | the evolution of a pair of chromosomes that differ in appearance between males and females (heteromorphic sex chromosomes) has occurred repeatedly across plants and animals. recent work has shown that the male heterogametic (xy) and female heterogametic (zw) sex chromosomes evolved independently from different pairs of homomorphic autosomes in the common ancestor of birds and mammals but also that x and z chromosomes share many convergent molecular features. however, little is known about how of ... | 2012 | 22319158 |
| patterning the dorsal-ventral axis of the wasp nasonia vitripennis. | regulatory networks composed of interacting genes are responsible for pattern formation and cell type specification in a wide variety of developmental contexts. evolution must act on these regulatory networks in order to change the proportions, distribution, and characteristics of specified cells. thus, understanding how these networks operate in homologous systems across multiple levels of phylogenetic divergence is critical for understanding the evolution of developmental systems. among the mo ... | 2013 | 23735637 |
| evidence for compensatory evolution of ribosomal proteins in response to rapid divergence of mitochondrial rrna. | rapid evolution of mitochondrial dna (mtdna) places intrinsic selective pressures on many nuclear genes involved in mitochondrial functions. mitochondrial ribosomes, for example, are composed of mtdna-encoded ribosomal rnas (rrnas) and a set of more than 60 nuclear-encoded ribosomal proteins (mrp) distinct from the cytosolic rps (crp). we hypothesized that the rapid divergence of mt-rrna would result in rapid evolution of mrps relative to crps, which respond to slowly evolving nuclear-encoded rr ... | 2013 | 22993236 |
| the evolution of developmental gene networks: lessons from comparative studies on holometabolous insects. | recent comparative studies have revealed significant differences in the developmental gene networks operating in three holometabolous insects: the beetle tribolium castaneum, the parasitic wasp nasonia vitripennis and the fruitfly drosophila melanogaster. i discuss these differences in relation to divergent and convergent changes in cellular embryology. i speculate on how segmentation gene networks have evolved to operate in divergent embryological contexts, and highlight the role that co-option ... | 2008 | 18192180 |
| wasps, beetles and the beginning of the ends. | recent papers investigating the genes regulating early embryogenesis in the wasp nasonia vitripennis and the beetle tribolium castaneum have provided us with important clues as to how early development is controlled in insects other than higher dipterans such as drosophila melanogaster. the results of these studies demonstrate that in insects that do not have bicoid, anterior patterning is regulated by a combination of maternal orthodenticle and hunchback. furthermore, during the evolution of lo ... | 2006 | 16850399 |
| the jewel wasp nasonia: querying the genome with haplo-diploid genetics. | the jewel wasp nasonia vitripennis is considered the "drosophila melanogaster of the hymenoptera." this diminutive wasp offers insect geneticists a means for applying haplo-diploid genetics to the analysis of developmental processes. as in bees, haploid males develop from unfertilized eggs, while diploid females develop from fertilized eggs. nasonia's advantageous combination of haplo-diploid genetics and ease of handling in the laboratory facilitates screening the entire genome for recessive mu ... | 2003 | 12640624 |
| reciprocal inheritance of centrosomes in the parthenogenetic hymenopteran nasonia vitripennis. | in the majority of animals, the centrosome-the microtubule-organizing center of the cell-is assembled from components of both the sperm and the egg. how the males of the insect order hymenoptera acquire centrosomes is a mystery, as they originate from virgin birth. | 2000 | 11102802 |
| sequence analysis of the d1 and d2 regions of 28s rdna in the hornet (vespa crabro) (hymenoptera, vespinae). | the two variable domains d1 and d2 near the 5' end of the 28s ribosomal rna gene (large subunit rrna) have been sequenced for vespa crabro. the sequence was aligned to corresponding rdna regions of the wasp species nasonia vitripennis, melittobia digitata and the fruit fly drosophila melanogaster. we analysed the nucleotide composition and sequence similarity for the different regions of the investigated sequences and present the inferred secondary structure of vespa crabro. | 1994 | 7704312 |
| egf signaling and the origin of axial polarity among the insects. | the eggs of insects are unusual in that they often have bilateral symmetry when they are laid, indicating that both anterior-posterior (ap) and dorsal-ventral (dv) symmetries are broken during oogenesis. the molecular basis of this process is well understood in drosophila melanogaster, in which symmetry breaking events for both axes depend on the asymmetric position of the oocyte nucleus and on germline-soma signaling mediated by the tgf alpha-like epidermal growth factor (egf) ligand gurken. ge ... | 2010 | 20471269 |