Transfer of incompatibility factors between stocks of Nasonia (= Mormoniella) vitripennis.

The stock of Nasonia vitripennis marked by the nuclear eye color mutation "tinged" (ti) shows nonreciprocal cytoplasmic incompatibility with wild-type (+) strains. Homogenates prepared from ti female pupae and injected into + female pupae caused 39% of the recipients to acquire the incompatibility characteristics of the ti donors. When eggs obtained from ti females were fragmented and injected into + female pupae, or when the ti egg cytoplasm was injected into chick eggs and yolk sac homogenates were subsequently injected into + female pupae, 28% of the recipients acquired ti-type incompatibility characteristics. Results from passage of the egg cytoplasm through 0.23-microns millipore filters showed successful transfer of the incompatibility and suggest that the incompatibility system in N. vitripennis has two components: a bacterium and a smaller agent.