Horizontally transmitted parasitoid killing factor shapes insect defense to parasitoids
Laila Gasmi, Edyta Sieminska, Shohei Okuno, Rie Ohta, Cathy Coutu, Mohammad Vatanparast, Stephanie Harris, Doug Baldwin, Dwayne D. Hegedus, David A. Theilmann, Aki Kida, Mio Kawabata, Shiori Sagawa, Jun Takatsuka, Ken Tateishi, Kazuyo Watanabe, Maki N. Inoue, Yasuhisa Kunimi, Yonggyun Kim, Martin A. Erlandson, Salvador Herrero, Madoka Nakai
Abstract
Protection from parasitism by a virus Parasitoid wasps have developed myriad systems to overcome the defense mechanisms of their hosts as they lay their eggs in the bodies and eggs of targeted species. Gasmi et al . report how the host can fight back when infected by a virus that expresses a protein conferring resistance to the parasitoid. When members of the butterfly and moth family are targeted by wasps, a protein family has evolved that is horizontally carried by viruses—and sometimes is incorporated into the host genome—and impairs the ability of parasitoid offspring to fully develop and emerge. Characterizing the ability of this protein to protect hosts against specific parasites, the authors document an ongoing host-parasite evolutionary arms race. —LMZ