Absence of complementary sex determination in the parasitoid wasp genus Asobara (Hymenoptera: Braconidae)

PLoS One. 2013 Apr 2;8(4):e60459. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0060459. Print 2013.

Abstract

An attractive way to improve our understanding of sex determination evolution is to study the underlying mechanisms in closely related species and in a phylogenetic perspective. Hymenopterans are well suited owing to the diverse sex determination mechanisms, including different types of Complementary Sex Determination (CSD) and maternal control sex determination. We investigated different types of CSD in four species within the braconid wasp genus Asobara that exhibit diverse life-history traits. Nine to thirteen generations of inbreeding were monitored for diploid male production, brood size, offspring sex ratio, and pupal mortality as indicators for CSD. In addition, simulation models were developed to compare these observations to predicted patterns for multilocus CSD with up to ten loci. The inbreeding regime did not result in diploid male production, decreased brood sizes, substantially increased offspring sex ratios nor in increased pupal mortality. The simulations further allowed us to reject CSD with up to ten loci, which is a strong refutation of the multilocus CSD model. We discuss how the absence of CSD can be reconciled with the variation in life-history traits among Asobara species, and the ramifications for the phylogenetic distribution of sex determination mechanisms in the Hymenoptera.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Diploidy
  • Female
  • Hymenoptera / genetics*
  • Male
  • Models, Genetic
  • Sex Determination Processes*
  • Sex Ratio

Grants and funding

This work was supported by funding from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) to BAP (Veni grant no. 863.08.008), JGdB (Veni grant no. 863.07.010), BW (Vidi grant no. 864.08.008) and a NWO/ALW TOP grant (no. 854.10.001) to LWB and LvdZ. BAP was also funded by the Netherlands Genomics Initiative (NGI) (Horizon Breakthrough and Zenith grants no. 935.19.006 and 935.11.041). NWO URL: http://www.nwo.nl/. NGI URL: http://www.genomics.nl/. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.