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A viral mutualist employs posthatch transmission for vertical and horizontal spread among parasitoid wasps

Significance Mutualistic viruses remain a rarity among known animal–microbe symbioses. Yet, several beneficial viruses have been identified within insects called parasitoid wasps. Most of these viral entities are permanent components of wasp genomes. However, a mutualistic poxvirus found within Diachasmimorpha longicaudata wasps maintains an independent genome and may therefore behave in ways more similar to cellular microbial symbionts. In this study, we discovered unique properties of viral symbiont transmission, including an evolved dependence on parasitoid wasps for virus spread among fruit fly hosts and a distinct mode of faithful virus transmission among parasitoid wasps. These findings demonstrate that certain symbiont transmission pathways have arisen independently across disparate life forms to play pivotal roles in insect biology and evolution.