ArticleCurrent biology : CB2008
A bacterium targets maternally inherited centrosomes to kill males in Nasonia.
Article in Current biology : CB, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 102 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- Endosymbionts interacting with sex-determining genes and processes.Current opinion in insect science · 2025Review
- A reference genome for Trichogramma kaykai: a tiny desert-dwelling parasitoid wasp with competing sex-ratio distorters.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2025Article
- From insect endosymbiont to phloem colonizer: comparative genomics unveils the lifestyle transition of phytopathogenicmSystems · 2025Article
- The ecology, evolution, and physiology of Cardinium: a widespread heritable endosymbiont of invertebrates.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2025Review
- Cell-based assays and comparative genomics revealed the conserved and hidden effects ofPNAS nexus · 2024Article
- Shaping the Microbial Landscape: Parasitoid-Driven Modifications of Bactrocera dorsalis Microbiota.Microbial ecology · 2024Article
- Metabolism, digestion, and horizontal transfer: potential roles and interaction of symbiotic bacteria in the ladybird beetleMicrobiology spectrum · 2024Article
- Identification of Parthenogenesis-Inducing Effector Proteins in Wolbachia.Genome biology and evolution · 2024Article
- Diverse Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Microbe-Inducing Male Killing in the Moth Homona magnanima.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2023Article
- Characterization of the Bacterial Microbiome in Natural Populations of Barley Stem Gall Midge,Microorganisms · 2023Article
- Cell-based analysis reveals that sex-determining gene signals inPNAS nexus · 2023Article
- Microbiome of pear psyllids: A tale about closely related species sharing their endosymbionts.Environmental microbiology · 2022Article
- Sex determination systems as the interface between male-killing bacteria and their hosts.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Review
- Gut microbial composition in developmental stages of gall inducing thripsSaudi journal of biological sciences · 2022Article
- Mechanistically comparing reproductive manipulations caused by selfish chromosomes and bacterial symbionts.Heredity · 2021Review
- Article
- Transovarial Transmission of Bacteriome-Associated Symbionts in the CicadaApplied and environmental microbiology · 2020Article
- Detection ofInsects · 2020Article
- Spermatogenesis in haploid males of the jewel wasp Nasonia vitripennis.Scientific reports · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Male killing is caused by diverse microbial taxa in a wide range of arthropods. This phenomenon poses important challenges to understanding the dynamics of sex ratios and host-pathogen interactions. However, the mechanisms of male killing are largely unknown. Evidence from one case in Drosophila suggests that bacteria can target components of the male-specific sex-determination pathway. Here, we investigated male killing by the bacterium Arsenophonus nasoniae in the haplo-diploid wasp Nasonia vitripennis, in which females develop as diploids from fertilized eggs and males develop parthenogenetically as haploids from unfertilized eggs. We found that Arsenophonus inhibits the formation of maternal centrosomes, organelles required specifically for early male embryonic development, resulting in unorganized mitotic spindles and developmental arrest well before the establishment of somatic sexual identity. Consistent with these results, rescue of Arsenophonus-induced male lethality was achieved by fertilization with sperm bearing the supernumerary chromosome paternal sex ratio (PSR), which destroys the paternal genome but bypasses the need for maternal centrosomes by allowing transmission of the sperm-derived centrosome into the egg. These findings reveal a novel mechanism of male killing in Nasonia, demonstrating that bacteria have evolved different mechanisms for inducing male killing in the Arthropods.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.