A single QTL with large effect is associated with female functional virginity in an asexual parasitoid wasp
We are investigating the genetic architecture of decayed sexual traits in asexual females of the parasitoid wasp Asobara japonia. In particular, we conduct QTL analysis for the female functional virginity trait, which referes to asexual females resisting to mate or not fertilizing eggs after mating. In the case of A. japonica, asexual females reject mating from males resulting in complete matin failure. We detected a single QTL with large phenotypic effects underlying the female functional virginity trait. Using PacBio genome assembly and transcriptomic RNAseq datasets, we found at least 131 protein coding genes underlying the single QTL, 15 of them showed differential expression in the sexual sister species Asobara tabida.