Previous Article | Next Article ![]()
Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2001, p. 5204-5209, Vol. 67, No. 11
Department of Biology, Imperial College of
Science, Technology, and Medicine, London SW7
2AZ,1 and NERC Centre for Population
Biology, Imperial College at Silwood Park, Ascot, Berkshire SL5
7PY,2 United Kingdom
Received 7 May 2001/Accepted 30 July 2001
We use data from the serial passage of co-occluded recombinant
Autographa californica nuclear polyhedrosis virus
(AcMNPV) to estimate the viral multiplicity of infection
of cells within infected insects. Co-occlusion, the incorporation of
wild-type and mutant virus genomes in the same occlusion body, has been proposed as a strategy to deliver genetically modified viruses as
insecticides in a way that contains their spread in the environment. It
may also serve as a means whereby naturally occurring mutant forms of
NPVs can be maintained in a stable polymorphism. Here, a recombinant
strain of AcMNPV was constructed with a deletion of its
polyhedrin gene, rendering it incapable of producing
occlusion bodies (i.e., occlusion negative). This was co-occluded with
wild-type AcMNPV and used to infect fifth-instar
Trichoplusia ni larvae. The fate of both genotypes was
monitored over several rounds of insect infection. Levels of the
occlusion-negative virus genome declined slowly over successive rounds
of infection. We applied these data to a model of NPV population
genetics to derive an estimate of 4.3 ± 0.3 viral genomes per
occlusion body-producing cell.
0099-2240/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/AEM.67.11.5204-5209.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Persistence of an Occlusion-Negative Recombinant
Nucleopolyhedrovirus in Trichoplusia ni Indicates High
Multiplicity of Cellular Infection
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Biology, Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine,
Imperial College Road, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom. Phone:
44(0)20-75945376. Fax: 44(0)20-75842056. E-mail:
dor{at}ic.ac.uk.
This article has been cited by other articles:
Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology. For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»