Phytoparasitica (1998) 26 (1) - Development of immediate-early ...

D.L. Jarvis, L. Reilly, K. Hoover, C.M. Schultz, B.D. Hammock and L.A. Guarino (1998)
Development of immediate-early recombinant baculovirus pesticides
Phytoparasitica 26 (1)
Xth International Congress of Virology, August 11-16, 1996, Binyanei haOoma, Jerusalem, Israel, lecture
Abstract: Recombinant viruses that express insect-specific toxins under the control of viral late gene promoters kill susceptible lepidopteran hosts faster than wild-type viruses. In order to improve further the efficacy of genetically engineered baculovirus pesticides, we produced a recombinant that contains an insect-specific toxin gene (AaIT) under the control of an immediate early promoter (iel) of Autographa californica nuclear polyhedrosis virus. In cultured cells infected with the recombinant, AaIT protein was detected as early as 4 h post-infection. AaIT accumulated as the infection progressed and, even as late as 24 h postinfection, the amount of AaIT was equal to that produced by a recombinant that expressed AaIT under the control of the very late p10 promoter. Similar results were obtained with a recombinant that expressed a modified insect juvenile hormone esterase (JHE-KK) under iel control, confirming the ability of this promoter to provide early and abundant expression of proteins with potent pesticidal activity. Bioassays showed that the iel-AaIT recombinant killed Heliothis virescens larvae faster than wild-type virus. Larvae infected with the iel-AaIT recombinant were smaller than those infected with the p10-AaIT virus, suggesting that expression of AaIT earlier in infection enhanced the ability of the virus to reduce the feeding activity of H. virescens larvae.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Database assignments for author(s): Kelli Hoover, Linda A. Guarino

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
biocontrol - natural enemies
Research topic(s) for beneficials or antagonists:
genetical engin./transgenic plants

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Heliothis virescens
Alphabaculovirus aucalifonicae (entomopathogen)	Heliothis virescens