Abstract
Sex determination in A. vulgare may be under the control of two maternally transmitted parasitic sex factors (PSF) that reverse genetic males (ZZ) into functional neo-females. The first PSF is a Wolbachia-like bacterium (F) and the other (f) is probably a sequence of the F bacterial DNA unstably integrated into the host genome. In the Niort population (France), where these two PSF are mixed, the frequency of neo-females harbouring f increased over a period of 23 years, at the expense of neo-females harbouring F. As the maternal transmission to offspring is higher for F than for f, the evolution of the F/f ratio disagrees with theoretical models involving a cytoplasmic factor. We show that an autosomal masculinizing gene (M) allows a high rate of paternal transmission of f, which could explain the spread of this factor in the population.
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