SON-KILLER: A THIRD EXTRACHROMOSOMAL FACTOR AFFECTING THE SEX RATIO IN THE PARASITOID WASP, NASONIA (=MORMONIELLA) VITRIPENNIS

Samuel Way Skinner 1

1 Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, and Department of Genetics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706

An extrachromosomal factor, termed son-killer (sk), affects the sex ratio in a parasitoid wasp, Nasonia (=Mormoniella ) vitripennis. The factor is maternally transmitted and alters the secondary sex ratio of an infected female through mortality of approximately 80% of the male embryos. No effect on the primary (zygotic) sex ratio is observed. Ninety-five percent of the daughters of an infected female inherit son-killer. The factor can also be transmitted contagiously when the progeny of infected and uninfected females develop simultaneously on a single host. In newly infected strains, the sex ratio effects are equivalent to those in the original.

Submitted on March 19, 1984
Accepted on November 17, 1984




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