Hymenopteran insects are a unique group of animals in which arrhenotokous reproduction (haploid males develop from unfertilized eggs) is a rule. Males produce sperm through a non-reductional maturation division. A sawfly species, Athalia rosae ruficornis Jakovlev Tenthredinidae, Symphyta, Hymenoptera) has introduced as a new experimental material for studies on genetics and developmental biology. Basic features relating to the potential usefulness of the species in elucidating some to the important genetic and developmental biological problems are described.
Mature eggs dissected from ovaries of unmated females of Athalia rosae (Hymenoptera: Tenthredinidae), if placed on a filter-paper soaked with distilled water, are activated and develop to haploid males. Occasionally, however, diploid females develop from these artificially activated eggs. Treatment of mature unfertilized eggs dissected from diploid females with ice-cold temperatures immediately before activation and with a high temperature (36° C) upon and immediately after activation resulted in the production of diploid males, diploid females, triploid females and gynandromorphs at high frequency. The same treatment of mature unfertilized eggs dissected from triploid females resulted in the production of only triploid survivors. These results, together with the results on the segregation of a marker mutation, yellow fatbody (yfb), appear to indicate that meiotic divisions were complete in the treated eggs, and that all four nuclei became potentially capable of participating in development with or without automictic fusion.
Mature unfertilized eggs (oocytes) dissected from the ovary of the sawfly Athalia rosae (Hymenoptera) begin parthenogenetic development if exposed to distilled water and produce haploid males. Injection of sperm into mature oocytes through the anterior pole resulted in karyogamy in a fraction of cases which developed as diploid females. No haploid-haploid chimeras due to independent participation of the injected sperm in development were produced. When sperm were injected through the posterior pole, however, fertilization never occurred but haploid-haploid chimeras were produced in a smaller fraction of cases. Both egg nucleus-derived and injected sperm-derived nuclei contributed in forming the germ cells of the chimeric males.
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