title: How does infection with parthenogenesis-inducing Wolbachia reduce the fitness of Trichogramma?
abstract: We analyzed the survival rate of the immature stages of Trichogramma species and lines that differed in their mode of reproduction. Specifically, we compared the mortality of arrhenotokous (W(-)), irrevertable thelytokous (W(-)), and Wolbachia-associated thelytokous (W(+)) forms. The embryonic mortality of the W(+) strains was significantly higher than that of the W(-) lines. The embryonic mortality was negligible for the arrhenotokous Trichogramma evanescens and the thelytokous Trichogramma cacoeciae, which is not infected with Wolbachia. Only 30% of the eggs of the Wolbachia-infected strains developed to adults, while the emergence rate of the Wolbachia-free strains was more than 78%, irrespective of the origin of the strains. More than 78% of the overall mortality in W(+) strains happened during the early stages of development. About 35% of embryos of W(+) strains remain in the mitotic stage even 48 h after oviposition. Most embryos of W(-) strains had already developed to cellular blastoderm after 6 h, regardless of strains. The mortality of immature stages in W(+) strains was mainly caused by the failure of the mitotic divisions.
authors: Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8528, Japan. tagamiy@affrc.go.jp
authors: Y
authors: Y
authors: Tagami
authors: K
authors: K
authors: Miura
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Stouthamer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D014863:Wasps / Q000196:embryology / Q000382:microbiology*; D020577:Wolbachia / Q000502:physiology*