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The HGSC is sequencing three species of parasitic wasp: Nasonia vitripennis,
Nasonia giraulti, and Nasonia longicornis. Nasonia is a genus
containing these three parasitic wasps whose hosts include house flies and
other filth flies. It is a genetic model for all parasitic wasps which are
used in the biological control of insect pests. Because of its usable
haploid genetics, Nasonia is a facile model for discovering the genes
behind complex traits. Nasonia will be the second representative of the
Hymenoptera to be sequenced at the HGSC. N. vitripennis has been
sequenced using a WGS strategy with a six-fold sequence coverage, whereas
N. giraulti and N. longicornis are being sampled at
single-fold sequence coverage, and will be aligned to the N. vitripennis
assembly to identify and localize sequence markers necessary for mapping
quantitative traits to individual gene loci.
The sequencing strains for N. vitripennis, N. giraulti, and N. longicornis were
provided by John (Jack) Werren
who was lead author on the Nasonia genome white paper.
Further details on the biology of Nasonia can be found
here.
Funding for this project has been provided by: the
National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI U54 HG003273), which
is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
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