Do Wolbachia influence fecundity in Nasonia vitripennis?

This paper reports the influence of a vertically transmitted symbiont, Wolb achia, on host fitness in the parasitic wasp, Nasonia vitripennis. We measu red fecundities of uninfected strains and strains infected with either two Wolbachia variants (wAv,wBv) or one (wAv or wBv). Preliminary tests suggest ed that double-infected females produce more offspring on average than unin fected females. However, further studies failed to yield consistent fitness effects. To control for host genetic effects, the genotype of the double-i nfected and uninfected strain was 'replaced' with three different host gene tic backgrounds by introgression. Contrary to previous results, we found no convincing evidence for positive fitness effects of Wolbachia in Nasonia v itripennis, once host genetic background was controlled for. It can be conc luded that under the experimental design used here, the fecundity effects a ssociated with Wolbachia in N. vitripennis are small or absent.