Transcriptome profiling of Nasonia vitripennis testis reveals novel transcripts expressed from the selfish B chromosome, paternal sex ratio.

ABSTRACT: A widespread phenomenon in nature is sex ratio distortion of arthropod populations caused by microbial and genetic parasites. Currently little is known about how these agents alter host developmental processes to favor one sex or the other. The paternal sex ratio (PSR) chromosome is a nonessential, paternally transmitted centric fragment that segregates in natural populations of the jewel wasp, Nasonia vitripennis. To persist, PSR is thought to modify the hereditary material of the developing sperm, with the result that all nuclear DNA other than the PSR chromosome is destroyed shortly after fertilization. This results in the conversion of a fertilized embryo--normally a female--into a male, thereby insuring transmission of the "selfish" PSR chromosome, and simultaneously leading to wasp p

SUBMITTER: Akbari OS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3755920 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature