genetically interacts with the germline stem cell gene in male .

The bacterial endosymbiont manipulates reproduction of its arthropod hosts to promote its own maternal vertical transmission. In female , has been shown to genetically interact with three key reproductive genes ( ( ) and , as it rescues the reduced female fertility or fecundity phenotype seen in partial loss-of-function mutants of these genes Here, we show that also partially rescues male fertility in carrying a new, largely sterile allele when in a null genetic background. This finding shows that the molecular mechanism of 's influence on its hosts' reproduction involves interaction with genes in males as well as females, at least in .