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Characterization of intersex production in Trichogramma kaykai infected with parthenogenesis-inducing Wolbachia

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Abstract

Sexually aberrant individuals, displaying both male and female characteristics, are rare in occurrence but are documented throughout the animal kingdom. In parasitoid wasps of the genus Trichogramma, such individuals typically appear as a result of rearing Wolbachia-infected thelytokous wasps at high temperatures. Sexually aberrant Trichogramma have been referred to interchangeably in the literature as gynandromorphs, sexual mosaics and intersexes. However, accurately used, the terms “gynandromorph” and “sexual mosaic” describe an individual composed of a mixture of genetically distinct tissues corresponding to the sexual phenotypes observed, while “intersex” refers to an individual having a uniform genetic constitution but with some tissues exhibiting sexual phenotypes conflicting with the associated genotype. Here, we investigate the heat-induced production of sexually aberrant offspring by thelytokous Trichogramma kaykai. Aberrant individuals were rare, but each was characterized as one of 11 morphotypes ranging from very feminine to very masculine. Overall, the production of aberrant individuals increased with time from the onset of maternal oviposition. However, while the production of males also increased with time, the degree of masculinity of aberrant individuals did not; the different morphotypes appeared to be produced haphazardly. We conclude that the aberrant individuals produced by T. kaykai are actually intersexes and not gynandromorphs. The wasp's close association with Wolbachia and the absence of intersexes in uninfected populations allow us to discuss a possible origin of the condition.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Paul Rugman-Jones for the review of earlier versions of this manuscript and four anonymous reviewers for their useful criticism and suggestions for improvement. This work was supported, in part, by a National Science Foundation Award EF-0328363 to RS and a Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship, Robert and Peggy van den Bosch Memorial Scholarship and Janet M. Boyce Memorial Scholarship to GMT.

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  1. Department of Entomology, University of California, 900 University Avenue, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA

    Genet M. Tulgetske & Richard Stouthamer

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  1. Genet M. Tulgetske
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  2. Richard Stouthamer
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Correspondence to Genet M. Tulgetske.

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Communicated by: Sven Thatje

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Tulgetske, G.M., Stouthamer, R. Characterization of intersex production in Trichogramma kaykai infected with parthenogenesis-inducing Wolbachia . Naturwissenschaften 99, 143–152 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-011-0880-2

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