Reproductive parasitism in a love triangle: Wolbachia, master manipulator or microbe mediator?

We will study the triangular interactions between cytoplasmic incompatibility inducing Wolbachia bacteria, the host nuclear genome and the remainder of the microbiome in the parasitoid wasp genus Nasonia. Questions that will be addressed are how vertical inheritance and environmental acquisition shape microbiome composition in Wolbachia-infected and –uninfected individuals; how different microbiome compositions affect reproductive manipulation by Wolbachia; whether novel Wolbachia infections lead to shifts in microbiome composition; and how Wolbachia affects host gene expression in interaction with the microbiome.