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Jetske de Boer

Mailing address:

Education:

Ph.D. 2004 Wageningen University, The Netherlands (Thesis-title: Bugs in odour space! How predatory mites respond to variation in herbivore-induced plant volatiles). Advisors: Marcel Dicke & Maurice Sabelis.

M.Sc. 1999 Wageningen University, The Netherlands (Plant breeding and crop protection)

Research interests:

My research interests are in the ecology and behavior of parasitoid wasps. I am currently studying their mechanisms of sex determination and mating behavior. This is a fascinating topic because parasitoid wasps are haplodiploid, males normally being haploid and females diploid. This means that they cannot have true sex chromosomes. In the 1940’s Whiting showed that in the parasitoid Bracon hebetor sex is determined at a single highly polymorphic sex locus and not just by fertilization of the egg. Individuals that are heterozygous at this locus develop into diploid females, whereas homozygotes develop into diploid males. Unfertilized eggs are always hemizygous and develop into haploid males. This complementary sex determination (CSD) has since been found in more than 40 hymenopteran species, including honeybees, wasps, and ants. CSD is now thought to be the ancestral mode of sex determination in the Hymenoptera.

Diploid males that are produced under CSD usually have low viability, are sterile or they may produce triploid daughters. They are produced instead of fertile diploid females so they represent a strong cost to a population, and potentially reduce the efficiency of biological control. The cost of CSD is especially high under inbreeding conditions because the frequency of diploid males is much higher under inbreeding than under random mating. My project aims to determine whether in a range of Cotesia species sex is determined by CSD or not. I will study both solitary and gregarious Cotesia species. We expect to find CSD in solitary but not in gregarious species because under natural conditions, the level of inbreeding is thought to be much higher in gregarious species. We therefore expect these species to have evolved away from CSD to another mechanism of sex determination in which diploid males are not formed. Another aspect of this project is comparing the mating behavior and mating system of solitary and gregarious Cotesia species.

Recent publications:

de Boer, J. G., and M. Dicke. 2005. Information use by the predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis (Acari : Phytoseiidae), a specialised natural enemy of herbivorous spider mites. Applied Entomology & Zoology 40, no. 1:1-12.

de Boer, J. G., T. A. L. Snoeren, and M. Dicke. 2005. Predatory mites learn to discriminate between plant volatiles induced by prey and nonprey herbivores. Animal Behaviour 69, no. Part 4:869-879.

de Boer, J. G., and M. Dicke. 2004. Experience with methyl salicylate affects behavioural responses of a predatory mite to blends of herbivore-induced plant volatiles. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata 110, no. 2:181-189.

de Boer, J. G., and M. Dicke. 2004. The role of methyl salicylate in prey searching behavior of the predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis. Journal of chemical ecology 30, no. 2:255-271.

de Boer, J. G., M. A. Posthumus, and M. Dicke. 2004. Identification of volatiles that are used in discrimination between plants infested with prey or nonprey herbivores by a predatory mite. Journal of chemical ecology 30, no. 11:2215-2230.

Dicke, M., J. G. de Boer, M. Hofte, and M. C. Rocha-Granados. 2003. Mixed blends of herbivore-induced plant volatiles and foraging success of carnivorous arthropods. Oikos 101, no. 1:38-48.

Dicke, M., R. M. P. van Poecke, and J. G. de Boer. 2003. Inducible indirect defence of plants: from mechanisms to ecological functions. Basic and Applied Ecology 4, no. 1:27-42.

van Loon, J. J. A., J. G. de Boer, and M. Dicke. 2000. Parasitoid-plant mutualism: parasitoid attack of herbivore increases plant reproduction. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata 97, no. 2:219-227.