Jasmonic acid-induced plant defenses delay caterpillar developmental resistance to a baculovirus: Slow-growth, high-mortality hypothesis in plant-insect-pathogen interactions.

Plants damaged by herbivore feeding can induce defensive responses that reduce herbivore growth. The slow-growth, high-mortality hypothesis postulates that these non-lethal plant defenses prolong the herbivore's period of susceptibility to natural enemies, such as predators and parasitoids. While many juvenile animals increase their disease resistance as they grow, direct tests of the slow-growth, high-mortality hypothesis in the context of plant-herbivore-pathogen interactions are lacking.

Impact of viral enhancin genes on potency of Lymantria dispar multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus in L. dispar following disruption of the peritrophic matrix.

Enhancins are metalloproteases found in many betabaculoviruses and several alphabaculoviruses, which enhance alphabaculovirus potency by degrading a protein component of the peritrophic matrix (PM), facilitating passage of virions through this structure. Earlier studies on betabaculovirus enhancins within heterologous systems suggested that enhancins facilitate virion binding to midgut cells. We compared the potency of wild-type Lymantria dispar multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (LdMNPV) with that of single and double enhancin deletion viruses in L.

The Lymantria dispar nucleopolyhedrovirus enhancins are components of occlusion-derived virus.

Enhancins are metalloproteinases, first identified in granuloviruses, that can enhance nucleopolyhedrovirus (NPV) potency. We had previously identified two enhancin genes (E1 and E2) in the Lymantria dispar multinucleocapsid NPV (LdMNPV) and showed that both were functional. For this study, we have extended our analysis of LdMNPV enhancin genes through an immunocytochemical analysis of E1 and E2 expression and localization.

The Lymantria dispar nucleopolyhedrovirus contains the capsid-associated p24 protein gene.

During the course of investigations on a wild-type strain of Lymantria dispar multinucleocapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus (LdMNPV), a region of the viral genome was analyzed and found to contain 697 bp that is lacking in the sequenced strain (5-6) of LdMNPV (Kuzio et al., Virology 253, 17-34, 1999). The sequenced strain of LdMNPV contains a mutation in the 25 K few polyhedra (FP) gene, and exhibits the phenotype of a FP mutant.

N-glycan structures of human transferrin produced by Lymantria dispar (gypsy moth) cells using the LdMNPV expression system.

N-glycan structures of recombinant human serum transferrin (hTf) expressed by Lymantria dispar (gypsy moth) 652Y cells were determined. The gene encoding hTf was incorporated into a Lymantria dispar nucleopolyhedrovirus (LdMNPV) under the control of the polyhedrin promoter. This virus was then used to infect Ld652Y cells, and the recombinant protein was harvested at 120 h postinfection.