Disruption of the baculovirus core gene ac78 results in decreased production of multiple nucleocapsid-enveloped occlusion-derived virions and the failure of primary infection in vivo.

The Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV) ac78 gene is one of the baculovirus core genes. Recent studies showed that ac78 is essential for budded virion (BV) production and the embedding of occlusion-derived virion (ODV) into occlusion body during the AcMNPV life cycle. Here, we report that an ac78-knockout AcMNPV (vAc78KO) constructed in this study had different phenotypes than those described in the previous studies. A few infectious BVs were detected using titer assays, immunoblot analyses and plaque assays, indicating that ac78 is not essential for BV formation. Electron microscopy confirmed that the ac78 deletion did not affect nucleocapsid assembly and ODV formation. However, the numbers of multiple nucleocapsid-enveloped ODVs and ODV-embedded occlusion bodies were significantly decreased. Subsequently, the highly conserved amino acid residues 2-25 and 64-88 of Ac78, which are homologous to an oxidoreductase and cytochrome c oxidase, respectively, were demonstrated to play a crucial role in the morphogenesis of multiple nucleocapsid-enveloped ODV. Immunoblot analysis found that Ac78 was an ODV envelope-associated protein. Consistently, amino acid residues 56-93 of Ac78 were identified as an inner nuclear membrane sorting motif, which may direct the localization of Ac78 to the ODV envelope. In vivo infectivity assays showed that the occlusion bodies of vAc78KO were unable to establish primary infection in the midgut of Trichoplusia ni larvae. Taken together, our results suggest that ac78 plays an important role in BV production and proper multiple nucleocapsid-enveloped ODV formation, as well as AcMNPV primary infection in vivo.

[Establishment of SeMNPV persistent infection in Spotoptera exigua cells].

Persistent baculovirus infection is observed frequently in insect populations. Persistent infection can be transformed to a replicative and infective state caused by stress factors and plays an important role in regulating the size of insect population and in epizoology of baculoviruses. The aim of this study is to establish a persistently baculovirus-infected cell system to explore the molecular mechanisms of baculoviral persistence. Spodoptera exigua nucleopolyhedrovirus (SeMNPV) was serially undiluted passaged in Se301 cells to reduce virulence. Upon infection of Se301 cells with the SeMNPV up to passage 8, a few cells survived even if most of cells died due to virus infection. The surviving cells were passaged and designated as P8-Se301 cell strain. P8-Se301 cells had a population doubling time of 58-65 hours and grew slower than Se301 cells. Light microscopy and electron microscopy observation showed symptom of baculovirus infection, such as virogenic stroma, viral particles and occlusion bodies, in some of P8-Se301 cells. End-point dilution assay and infectious center assay showed that 4.14% +/- 0.99% cells continually released infectious progeny virus which replicated slower than SeMNPV in Se301 cells. The result indicated that P8-Se301 cells show a typical character trait of baculovirus persistent infection.

[Influence of accessory protein P19 from Bacillus thuringiensis on insecticidal crystal protein Cry11Aa].

p19 gene, cry11Aa gene and p20 gene from Bacillus thuringienesis subsp. israelensis are organized as a single operon. It is reported that P20 polypeptide is not required for high-level expression of Cry11Aa and crystal formation in B. thuringiensis. It is deduced that P19 might relate to Cry11Aa crystallization. In this study, two recombinant plasmids pHcy1 and pHcy3 containing cryllAa gene were constructed, the latter absent from p19 gene encoding a possible accessory protein between cry11Aa promoter and cry11Aa gene. The recombinant plasmids were introduced into an acrystalliferous mutant 4Q7 of B. thuringiensis subsp. israelensis. SDS-PAGE showed that Cry11Aa protein per unit of culture medium had a higher expression level in 4Q7(pHcy1) with p19 and cry11Aa genes than in 4Q7(pHcy3) with only cry11Aa gene. Both two B. thuringiensis strains formed Cry11Aa crystals in a similar size and shape during sporulation. Toxicity bioassay showed 4Q7 (pHcy1) and 4Q7 (pHcy3) exhibited a comparable mosquito-larvicidal activity against 3rd-instar Culex quinquefasciatus. It indicated that accessory protein P19 did not have an effect on cry11Aa crystallization and high mosquitocidal toxicity. However, it could enhance Cry11Aa expression amount to a certain extent.

[Effects of helper protein P20 from Bacillus thuringiensis on Vip3A expression].

Insecticidal crystal proteins (ICPs) produced in Bacillus thuringiensis accumulate as crystalline inclusions that represent up to 30% of total dry weight the cell produces. The mechanisms of in vivo crystallization of these insecticidal proteins remain interests, yet unclear. A 20-kDa protein (P20), the product of the third open reading frame of cry11A operon in B. thuringiensis subsp. israelensis has been defined to be an important molecular chaperone (helper protein) for forming Cyt1A crystal and enhancing Cry11A expression. The novel vegetative insecticidal proteins (VIPs) are secreted outside the cell of B. thuringiensis during mid-logarithmic growth. VIP3A shows activity against many lepidopteran insect larvae in a different mechanism from that of ICPs. To investigate the influence of helper protein P20 on Vip3A production and its insecticidal activity, P20 was coexpressed with Vip3A protein in B. thuringiensis and the yields and insecticidal toxicity of Vip3A were also analyzed. The recombinant plasmid pHVP20 was constructed by inserting a 5.4kb foreign fragment containing both vip3A gene and p20 gene into the shuttle vector pHT3101. The plasmid pHPT3 only containing vip3A gene was used as control. pHVP20 and pHPT3 were transformed into the B. thuringiensis acrystalliferous strain CryB not containing vip3A gene by electroporation. The obtained B. thuringiensis transformants were CryB(pHVP20) and CryB(pHPT3) respectively. Western blot showed that Vip3A protein reached its maximum yield after 48h of CryB (pHVP20) growth and remained high expression level during the sporulation. The maximum yield of Vip3A protein in CryB (pHVP20) was about 1.5 fold as compared with that in CryB(pHPT3) by the mean of ImageMaster VDS software. It is considered that P20 might combine with the native Vip3A protein during the sporulation, stabilize Vip3A and protect Vip3A from unspecific full proteolysis. Bioassay showed that the cell pellets of CryB (pHVP20) and CryB(pHPT3) performed high insecticidal toxicity against the first instar larvae of Spodoptera litura. Their LC50s of were 48.79 microg/mL and 78.00 microg/mL respectively and were not significantly different. Cell supernatants of two strains containing small amounts of secreted Vip3A were not toxic to the tested insect. It suggests that p20 can enhance the expression of Vip3A, but not improve its insecticidal toxicity remarkably.

[Screening of Bacillus thuringiensis strains containing vip3A genes and analysis of gene conservation].

Vip3A, a novel insecticidal protein, is secreted by Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) during vegetative growth. Vip3A protein possesses insecticidal activity against a wild spectrum of lepidopteran insect larvae. Since the first cloning of vip3A gene from Bt, many other vip3A genes have been isolated. To investigate vip3A genes contribution to Bt and reflect the revolution relationships, the strains containing vip3A genes were screened and gene similarity was analyzed. 114 wild-type Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) strains isolated from different regions and 41 standard Bt strains from the Institute of Pasteur were screened for the vip3A genes using PCR amplification. 39 strains including B. thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki (Btk) HD-1 were found to contain the vip3A genes. Because acrystallerous strain Cry- B derived from Btk HD-1 was proved not to contain vip3A gene, it suppose that the vip3A gene may be located at the plasmids. Vip3A proteins expressed in these strains were detected with polyclonal antibody by Western blot and 4 strains among them were shown not to express the Vip3A proteins. The vip3A genes amplified from wild-type Bacillus thuringiensis strains S101 and 611 with different levels of activity against lepidopteran insect larvae were cloned into pGEM-T Easy vector. Alignment of these 2 putative Vip3A proteins with 6 others (Vip3A (a), Vip3A(b), Vip3A-S, Vip3A-S184, Vip83 and Vip3V) in the GenBank data base and 2 reported Vip3A proteins (Vip14 and Vip15) showed that vip3A genes are highly conservative. The plasmids pOTP-S101 and pOTP-611 were constructed by in- serting 2 vip3A genes (vip3A-S101 and vip3A-611) into the expression vector pQE30 respectively and were transformed into E. coli M15. E. coli M15 cells harboring the pOTP plasmids were induced with 1 mmol/L IPTG to express 89 kDa protein. Experiments showed that the level of soluble proteins of Vip3A-S101 in E. coli M15[pOTP-S101] and Vip3A-611 in E. coli M15 [pOTP-611] were about 48% and 35% respectively. Bioassay showed that each of these Vip3A proteins had similar toxicity against neonate Spodoptera litura larvae, indicating that some amino acids change had little effect on the insecticidal activity of proteins. Although vip3A genes are conservative, the unknown insecticidal spectrum is still to be brought out. Vip3A genes can be used for the construction of the Bt engineered strains and transgenic plants. In addition, vip3A genes are excellent candidates for delay of the pest resistance due to the difference of the action model from that of Bt delta-endotoxins.

[Bacillus thuringiensis helper protein P20 affects the formation of Cry1Ab].

The Cry1Ab differs most significantly from the other related ICPs by its absence of a carboxyl terminus of 28 amino acids including four cysteines; consequently it is less stable. We report that the helper protein P20 plays a role in the expression and crystallization of Cry1Ab. Three Cry1Ab expression plasmids pT1B, pP1B, and pDP1B, were constructed based on the shuttle vector pHT3101. The vector pT1B does not contain the p20 gene, pP1B carries p20, and pDP1B contains p20 with cry1A(c) promoter. Transformants were obtained by electroporating the plasmids into Bacillus thuringiensis acrystalliferous mutant CryB. Western blot demonstrated that crylAb was expressed as a 130 kD protein in all the transformants, and some of the protein was partially degraded into a 60 kD peptide. Quantitative protein analysis indicated that the amount of the 130 kD protein varied in the transformants and was in the ratio of 1:1.4:1.5 for PT1B, pP1B and pDP1B respectively. For the 60 kD proteins, the ratio was 1:1.1:1.6. Microscopic examination revealed that the size of the typical pyramidal crystals in the three transformants was in the order of T1B < P1B < DP1B. Bioassay showed that T1B, P1B and DP1B were all toxic to the larvae of Helicoverpa armigera with similar LC50. This study suggested that P20 plays a role in the expression and crystallization of Cry1Ab.