''Asobara'' is a genus of
parasitoid wasp
Parasitoid wasps are a large group of hymenopteran superfamilies, with all but the wood wasps (Orussoidea) being in the wasp-waisted Apocrita. As parasitoids, they lay their eggs on or in the bodies of other arthropods, sooner or later causin ...
s in the family
Braconidae
The Braconidae are a family of parasitoid wasps. After the closely related Ichneumonidae, braconids make up the second-largest family in the order Hymenoptera, with about 17,000 recognized species and many thousands more undescribed. One analysis ...
. The genus is best known for the ''
Drosophila
''Drosophila'' () is a genus of flies, belonging to the family Drosophilidae, whose members are often called "small fruit flies" or (less frequently) pomace flies, vinegar flies, or wine flies, a reference to the characteristic of many species ...
'' parasitoid ''Asobara tabida'', which is notable as both a model for parasitoid wasp infection in insects, and also as a representative of the
hologenome theory of evolution
The hologenome theory of evolution recasts the individual animal or plant (and other multicellular organisms) as a community or a "holobiont" – the host plus all of its symbiotic microbes. Consequently, the collective genomes of the holobiont for ...
.
''Asobara tabida'' is commensally infected with ''Wolbachia'', and cannot reproduce in the absence of ''
Wolbachia'' infection. As such, the genome of ''Asobara'' is directly tied to the genome of its commensal ''Wolbachia''
symbiont, and the two are considered to have a
hologenome.
References
Further reading
*
*Rolff, J., and A. R. Kraaijeveld. "Host preference and survival in selected lines of a ''Drosophila'' parasitoid, ''Asobara tabida''." Journal of Evolutionary Biology 14.5 (2001): 742–745.
*Green, D. M., A. R. Kraaijeveld, and H. C. J. Godfray. "Evolutionary interactions between ''Drosophila melanogaster'' and its parasitoid ''Asobara tabida''." Heredity85.5 (2000): 450–458.
*
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External links
*
Braconidae genera
{{Ichneumonoidea-stub