Development of a Nasonia vitripennis outbred laboratory population for genetic analysis

Louis van de Zande,Steven Ferber,Joost van Heerwaarden,Leo W. Beukeboom,Bart A. Pannebakker,Ammerins de Haan

doi:10.1111/1755-0998.12201

Louis van de Zande, Steven Ferber + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.1111/1755-0998.12201

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Abstract

The parasitoid wasp genus Nasonia has rapidly become a genetic model system for developmental and evolutionary biology. The release of its genome sequence led to the development of high-resolution genomic tools, for both interspecific and intraspecific research, which has resulted in great advances in understanding Nasonia biology. To further advance the utility of Nasonia vitripennis as a genetic model system and to be able to fully exploit the advantages of its fully sequenced and annotated genome, we developed a genetically variable and well-characterized experimental population. In this study, we describe the establishment of the genetically diverse HVRx laboratory population from strains collected from the field in the Netherlands. We established a maintenance method that retains genetic variation over generations of culturing in the laboratory. As a characterization of its genetic composition, we provide data on the standing genetic variation and estimate the effective population size (Ne) by microsatellite analysis. A genome-wide description of polymorphism is provided through pooled resequencing, which yielded 417 331 high-quality SNPs spanning all five Nasonia chromosomes. The HVRx population and its characterization are freely available as a community resource for investigators seeking to elucidate the genetic basis of complex trait variation using the Nasonia model system.

Highlights

The parasitoid wasp genus Nasonia has rapidly become a genetic model system for developmental and evolutionary biology (Desplan & Beukeboom 2003; Werren & Loehlin 2009; Brown 2010; Godfray 2010; Muers 2010)
The release of its genome sequence led to the development of high-resolution genomic tools, for both interspecific
We describe the establishment of the genetically diverse outbred HVRx laboratory population from strains that were collected from birds nest boxes and carrion baits in the Netherlands

Summary

Introduction

The parasitoid wasp genus Nasonia has rapidly become a genetic model system for developmental and evolutionary biology (Desplan & Beukeboom 2003; Werren & Loehlin 2009; Brown 2010; Godfray 2010; Muers 2010). The last years have seen a large number of studies that used the Nasonia genome sequence, reporting scientific breakthroughs in fundamental and applied biology (Loehlin et al 2010b; Pannebakker et al 2010, 2011; Verhulst et al 2010; Werren et al 2010; Lynch et al 2011; Koevoets et al 2012; Loehlin & Werren 2012; Brucker & Bordenstein 2013; Gibson et al 2013; Niehuis et al 2013; Paolucci et al 2013). To further advance the utility of N. vitripennis as a genetic model system and to be able to fully exploit the advantages of its fully sequenced and annotated genome, a genetically variable and well-characterized experimental population, which is available for use in research worldwide, is highly required To further advance the utility of N. vitripennis as a genetic model system and to be able to fully exploit the advantages of its fully sequenced and annotated genome, a genetically variable and well-characterized experimental population, which is available for use in research worldwide, is highly required (e.g. Burke et al 2010; Huang et al 2012; Svenson et al 2012)

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