New virus increases male-to-female ratio of insect-killing wasps stat : plos

(2017) A novel negative-stranded RNA virus mediates sex ratio in its parasitoid host. Scientists have discovered a new virus that alters the sex ratio of lab-raised wasps — a strategy that may help it spread to more wasp offspring. P. puparum typically attacks butterfly pupae and can help control populations of butterflies that damage vegetable crops (such as cabbage). P. puparum is a small parasitoid wasp, a type of wasp that lays its eggs inside the body of a living host insect. To investigate the impact of PpNSRV-1, the researchers compared two groups of P. puparum, one infected with the virus and one uninfected.




The virus, discovered by Gongyin Ye's group of Zhejiang University, infects one species of a specific group of wasps known as parasitoid wasps. Better understanding of parasitoid wasps in general is useful since their insect-killing tendencies make some of them valuable for insect control in agriculture. They compared wasps infected by PpNSRV-1 with non-infected wasps and found that the virus lengthens the lifespan of the wasps. Many parasitoid wasps have symbiotic relationships with viruses that enable wasps to produce substances that weaken the host insect immune defense and help the wasps survive. (2017) A novel negative-stranded RNA virus mediates sex ratio in its parasitoid host.


"There is this amazing biodiversity of [insect] viruses out there and we really don't know much about them," he says. Wikimedia CommonsA newly discovered virus tinkers with its wasp host's longevity and sex, researchers have discovered. But that's not all the virus does. A team led by Gongyin Ye from Zhejiang University in China discovered the virus when trawling through the wasp's transcriptome – a read-out of the wasp's active genes. Wasps and viruses often form symbiotic alliances against their insect hosts.


collected by :Sandra Alex
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