Advances in the Bioinformatics Knowledge of mRNA Polyadenylation in Baculovirus Genes.

Baculoviruses are a group of insect viruses with large circular dsDNA genomes exploited in numerous biotechnological applications, such as the biological control of agricultural pests, the expression of recombinant proteins or the gene delivery of therapeutic sequences in mammals, among others. Their genomes encode between 80 and 200 proteins, of which 38 are shared by all reported species. Thanks to multi-omic studies, there is remarkable information about the baculoviral proteome and the temporality in the virus gene expression.

Organophosphorus compounds biodegradation by novel bacterial isolates and their potential application in bioremediation of contaminated water.

Organophosphorus compounds (OPs), the major pesticides used worldwide, comprise an environmental hazard due to their harmful toxicity. Aimed to develop a bioreactor to remediate OPs contaminated wastewater, bacteria isolated from contaminated soils were identified and their ability to degrade OPs assessed, resulting in two main isolates, Sphingomonas sp. and Brevundimonas sp.

Genomic analysis of an Argentinean isolate of Spodoptera frugiperda granulovirus reveals that various baculoviruses code for Lef-7 proteins with three F-box domains.

A new isolate of the Spodoptera frugiperda granulovirus, SfGV ARG, was completely sequenced and analyzed. The SfGV ARG genome is 139,812 bp long and encodes 151 putative open reading frames. Of these ORFs, 56 were found in betabaculoviruses, 19 of which are present only in GVs closely related to SfGV.

Identification of Diatraea spp. (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) based on cytochrome oxidase II.

Diatraea spp. (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) are a group of insects that are agriculture pests in many economically relevant crops such as sugarcane, sorghum, corn and rice. Recognized species for this genus respond differentially to natural enemies used in their biological control, emphasizing the importance of species in a regional approach.

Evidence of recent interspecies horizontal gene transfer regarding nucleopolyhedrovirus infection of Spodoptera frugiperda.

Background: Baculoviruses are insect-associated viruses carrying large, circular double-stranded-DNA genomes with significant biotechnological applications such as biological pest control, recombinant protein production, gene delivery in mammals and as a model of DNA genome evolution. These pathogens infect insects from the orders Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera and Diptera, and have high species diversity which is expressed in their diverse biological properties including morphology, virulence or pathogenicity. Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), the fall armyworm, represents a significant pest for agriculture in America; it is a host for baculoviruses such as the Spodoptera frugiperda multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (SfMNPV) (Colombia strain, genotype A) having been classified as a Group II alphabaculovirus making it a very attractive target for bioinsecticidal use.

Novel insights into the evolution and structural characterization of dyskerin using comprehensive bioinformatics analysis.

Dyskerin is a conserved nucleolar protein. Several related genetic diseases are caused by defects in dyskerin. We hypothesized that having a comprehensive bioinformatic analysis of dyskerin will help to develop new drugs for this diseases.

Potential conservation of circadian clock proteins in the phylum Nematoda as revealed by bioinformatic searches.

Although several circadian rhythms have been described in C. elegans, its molecular clock remains elusive. In this work we employed a novel bioinformatic approach, applying probabilistic methodologies, to search for circadian clock proteins of several of the best studied circadian model organisms of different taxa (Mus musculus, Drosophila melanogaster, Neurospora crassa, Arabidopsis thaliana and Synechoccocus elongatus) in the proteomes of C.

Family-specific degenerate primer design: a tool to design consensus degenerated oligonucleotides.

Designing degenerate PCR primers for templates of unknown nucleotide sequence may be a very difficult task. In this paper, we present a new method to design degenerate primers, implemented in family-specific degenerate primer design (FAS-DPD) computer software, for which the starting point is a multiple alignment of related amino acids or nucleotide sequences. To assess their efficiency, four different genome collections were used, covering a wide range of genomic lengths: Arenavirus (10 × 10(4) nucleotides), Baculovirus (0.

Genome of Epinotia aporema granulovirus (EpapGV), a polyorganotropic fast killing betabaculovirus with a novel thymidylate kinase gene.

Background: Epinotia aporema (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) is an important pest of legume crops in South America. Epinotia aporema granulovirus (EpapGV) is a baculovirus that causes a polyorganotropic infection in the host larva. Its high pathogenicity and host specificity make EpapGV an excellent candidate to be used as a biological control agent.

The ac53, ac78, ac101, and ac103 genes are newly discovered core genes in the family Baculoviridae.

The family Baculoviridae is a large group of insect viruses containing circular double-stranded DNA genomes of 80 to 180 kbp, which have broad biotechnological applications. A key feature to understand and manipulate them is the recognition of orthology. However, the differences in gene contents and evolutionary distances among the known members of this family make it difficult to assign sequence orthology.

Baculovirus: molecular insights on their diversity and conservation.

The Baculoviridae is a large group of insect viruses containing circular double-stranded DNA genomes of 80 to 180 kbp. In this study, genome sequences from 57 baculoviruses were analyzed to reevaluate the number and identity of core genes and to understand the distribution of the remaining coding sequences. Thirty one core genes with orthologs in all genomes were identified along with other 895 genes differing in their degrees of representation among reported genomes.

Identification of nucleopolyhedrovirus that infect Nymphalid butterflies Agraulis vanillae and Dione juno.

Dione juno and Agraulis vanillae are very common butterflies in natural gardens in South America, and also bred worldwide. In addition, larvae of these butterflies are considered as pests in crops of Passiflora spp. For these reasons, it is important to identify and describe pathogens of these species, both for preservation purposes and for use in pest control.

Molecular analysis of the virulence attenuation process in Junín virus vaccine genealogy.

The Junín virus strain Candid#1 was developed as a live attenuated vaccine for Argentine hemorrhagic fever. In this article, we report sequence information of the L and S RNAs of Junín virus Candid#1 and XJ#44 strains, and show the comparisons with the XJ13 wild-type strain and with other Junín virus strains, like Romero, IV4454 and MC2 strains, and other closely and distantly related arenaviruses. Comparisons of the nucleotide and amino acid sequences of all genes of three strains from the same vaccine genealogy, revealed different point mutations that could be associated with the attenuated phenotype.

Multiplex PCR and quality control of Epinotia aporema granulovirus production.

A specific multiplex PCR was developed for the rapid and highly sensitive quality control of the viral DNA during Epinotia aporema granulovirus (EpapGV) production. At the beginning of this work only 2.3% of the EpapGV genomic sequence was known.

Functional and structural characterisation of AgMNPV ie1.

We have located and cloned the Anticarsia gemmatalis multicapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus isolate 2D (AgMNPV-2D) genomic DNA fragment containing the immediate early 1 ORF and its flanking regions. Computer assisted analysis of the complete ie1 locus nucleotide sequence information was used to locate regulatory signals in the upstream region and conserved nucleotide and amino acid sequences. Comparative studies led to the identification of several characteristic protein motifs and to the conclusion that AgMNPV-2D is more closely related to Choristoneura fumiferana defective NPV than to other Group I nucleopolyhedrovirus.

Sequencing and characterisation of p74 gene in two isolates of Anticarsia gemmatalis MNPV.

P74 is a protein encoded in the genome of baculoviruses, associated with the envelopes of occluded virus. Its presence proved to be essential for per os infection. In first place, in this work we designed two universal primers to amplify a sequence region of the p74 ORF in baculoviruses from different classification groups.

Molecular cloning and sequence analysis of the Anticarsia gemmatalis multicapsid nuclear polyhedrosis virus GP64 glycoprotein.

The gp64 locus of Anticarsia gemmatalis multicapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus isolate Santa Fe (AgMNPV-SF) was characterised molecularly in our laboratory. To this end, we have located and cloned a AgMNPV-SF genomic DNA fragment containing the gp64 gene and sequenced the complete gp64 locus. Nucleotide sequence analysis indicated that the AgMNPV gp64 gene consists of a 1500 nucleotide open reading frame (ORF), encoding a protein of 499 amino acids.

Evaluation of the proacrosin/acrosin system and its mechanism of activation in human sperm extracts.

Acrosin is an acrosomal protease synthesized as a proenzyme and activated into beta-acrosin during the acrosome reaction. In the present study, a set of sensitive assays was developed to identify the proacrosin/acrosin system and to evaluate its activation pattern in human sperm extracts. Immunocytochemical analysis with monoclonal antibody (Mab) AcrC5F10 showed specific staining on the acrosome of permeabilized ejaculated and capacitated spermatozoa.