Differential gene expression is not required for facultative sex allocation: a transcriptome analysis of brain tissue in the parasitoid wasp <i>Nasonia vitripennis</i>.

ABSTRACT: Whole-transcriptome technologies have been widely used in behavioural genetics to identify genes associated with the performance of a behaviour and provide clues to its mechanistic basis. Here, we consider the genetic basis of sex allocation behaviour in the parasitoid wasp Nasonia vitripennis. Female Nasonia facultatively vary their offspring sex ratio in line with Hamilton's theory of local mate competition (LMC). A single female or 'foundress' laying eggs on a patch will lay just enough sons to fertilize her daughters. As the number of 'foundresses' laying eggs on a patch increases (and LMC declines), females produce increasingly male-biased sex ratios. Phenotypic studies have revealed the cues females use to estimate the level of LMC their sons will experience, but our un

SUBMITTER: Cook N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5830769 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature