Nasonia vitripennis

Nasonia vitripennis
Nasonia vitripennis female
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Pteromalidae
Genus: Nasonia
Species:
N. vitripennis
Binomial name
Nasonia vitripennis
(Walker, 1836)

Nasonia vitripennis (or Mormoniella vitripennis, or Nasonia brevicornis) is one of four known species under the genus Nasonia - small parasitoid wasps that afflict the larvae of parasitic carrion flies such as blowflies and flesh flies, which themselves are parasitic toward nestling birds. It is the best known and most widely studied of the parasitoid wasps, and their study forms a vital part of the information used to describe the order Hymenoptera, along with information from bees and ants. This parasitoid behaviour makes the wasps an interest for the development of biopesticide and biological systems for controlling unwanted insects.[1][2]

The biosynthetic pathways for sex pheromones in Hymenoptera, determination of sex in development, and many protein and gene product comparisons to other insects have been studied using N. vitripennis (most often contrasted against the Western honey bee, Apis mellifera).[3]

Nasonia vitripennis also has a high variety of proteins that have been discovered for venom and detection of odours and has repetitive DNA;[4] this information has been made easier for study since the complete sequencing and release of the genome of N. vitripennis in 2010.[5]

  1. ^ Zhang, Zhong; Ye, Gong-yin; Cai, Jun; Hua, Cui (2005). "Comparative venom toxicity between Pteromalus puparum and Nasonia vitripennis (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) toward the hemocytes of their natural hosts, non-target insects and cultured insect cells". Toxicon. 46 (3): 337–349. doi:10.1016/j.toxicon.2005.05.005. PMID 16026808.
  2. ^ Noyes, J.S. (2015). Universal Chalcidoidea Database. [World Wide Web electronic publication]. Retrieved from: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/data/chalcidoids/
  3. ^ Abdel-latief, Mohatmed; Garbe, Leif A.; Koch, Markus; Ruther, Joachim (2008). "An epoxide hydrolase involved in the biosynthesis of an insect sex attractant and its use to localize the production site". PNAS. 105 (26): 8914–8919. Bibcode:2008PNAS..105.8914A. doi:10.1073/pnas.0801559105. PMC 2449339. PMID 18579785.
  4. ^ Wurm, Yannick; Keller, Laurent (2010). "Parasitoid Wasps: From Natural History to Genomic Studies". Current Biology. 20 (5): R242–R244. Bibcode:2010CBio...20.R242W. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2010.01.027. PMID 20219176. S2CID 1015321.
  5. ^ "Model Organisms". INsecTIME. Archived from the original on 26 March 2017.