Skip to main content
Advertisement
  • Loading metrics

PLoS Genetics Issue Image | Vol. 9(10) October 2013

A female jewel wasp stings and lays her eggs in a host blowfly pupa

The photograph shows a female jewel wasp (Nasonia vitripennis) stinging a blowfly pupa, into which she lays her eggs. The jewel wasp is an emerging genetic model system. Genome-wide bisulfite sequencing reveals extensive DNA methylation over exons in the 5' portion of many protein coding genes in the jewel wasp. Methylated genes tend to show constitutive expression across developmental stages, whereas non-methylated genes have more stage-specific expression. Loss of methylation following gene duplication is associated with increased rates of evolution and more specialization in expression. See Wang et al.

Image Credit: Peter Koomen and Leo Beukeboom

thumbnail
A female jewel wasp stings and lays her eggs in a host blowfly pupa

The photograph shows a female jewel wasp (Nasonia vitripennis) stinging a blowfly pupa, into which she lays her eggs. The jewel wasp is an emerging genetic model system. Genome-wide bisulfite sequencing reveals extensive DNA methylation over exons in the 5' portion of many protein coding genes in the jewel wasp. Methylated genes tend to show constitutive expression across developmental stages, whereas non-methylated genes have more stage-specific expression. Loss of methylation following gene duplication is associated with increased rates of evolution and more specialization in expression. See Wang et al.

Image Credit: Peter Koomen and Leo Beukeboom

https://doi.org/10.1371/image.pgen.v09.i10.g001