The transcriptomic basis of oviposition behaviour in the parasitoid wasp Nasonia vitripennis

For many behaviours studied at the phenotypic level, we have little or no idea of where to start searching for “candidate” genes: the transcriptome provides such a starting point. Here we consider transcriptomic changes associated with oviposition in the parasitoid wasp Nasonia vitripennis. Oviposition is a key behaviour, as females are faced with a variety of decisions that will impact offspring fitness. These include choosing between hosts of differing quality, as well as deciding on clutch size and offspring sex ratio. We compared the whole-body transcriptomes of resting or ovipositing female Nasonia using a “DEEP-Sage” gene expression approach on the Illumina sequencing platform.