First record of Closterocerus chamaeleon,parasitoid of the Eucalyptus Gall Wasp Ophelimus maskelli (Hymenoptera,Chalcidoidea, Eulophidae), in the New World

The uniparental parasitoid Closterocerus chamaeleon (Girault) is discovered to be fortuitously present on a population of the invasive Eucalyptus Gall Wasp Ophelimus maskelli (Ashmead) in Riverside, California. This is the first report from the New World of Closterocerus chamaeleon, which has proven to be a highly effective natural enemy of Ophelimus maskelli in the Mediterranean Basin. The taxonomy and identification of Closterocerus chamaeleon is discussed.     

Exploiting codon usage identifies intensity-specific modifiers of Ras/MAPK signaling in vivo

Signal transduction pathways are intricately fine-tuned to accomplish diverse biological processes. An example is the conserved Ras/mitogen-activated-protein-kinase (MAPK) pathway, which exhibits context-dependent signaling output dynamics and regulation. Here, by altering codon usage as a novel platform to control signaling output, we screened the Drosophila genome for modifiers specific to either weak or strong Ras-driven eye phenotypes. Our screen enriched for regions of the genome not previously connected with Ras phenotypic modification. We mapped the underlying gene from one modifier to the ribosomal gene RpS21. In multiple contexts, we show that RpS21 preferentially influences weak Ras/MAPK signaling outputs. These data show that codon usage manipulation can identify new, output-specific signaling regulators, and identify RpS21 as an in vivo Ras/MAPK phenotypic regulator.