Interaction of a Densovirus with Glycans of the Peritrophic Matrix Mediates Oral Infection of the Lepidopteran Pest .

The success of oral infection by viruses depends on their capacity to overcome the gut epithelial barrier of their host to crossing over apical, mucous extracellular matrices. As orally transmitted viruses, densoviruses, are also challenged by the complexity of the insect gut barriers, more specifically by the chitinous peritrophic matrix, that lines and protects the midgut epithelium; how capsids stick to and cross these barriers to reach their final cell destination where replication goes has been poorly studied in insects. Here, we analyzed the early interaction of the densovirus (JcDV) with the midgut barriers of caterpillars from the pest .

Linear 1 sequences drive random integration of a reporter gene in transfected cells.

Background: The 1 isolated from (hereafter JcDV) is an invertebrate parvovirus considered as a viral transduction vector as well as a potential tool for the biological control of insect pests. Previous works showed that JcDV-based circular plasmids experimentally integrate into insect cells genomic DNA.

Methods: In order to approach the natural conditions of infection and possible integration, we generated linear JcDV- based molecules which were transfected into non permissive () cultured cells.

Role of the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase/Akt/target of rapamycin pathway during ambidensovirus infection of insect cells.

The phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt/target of rapamycin (TOR) signalling pathway controls cell growth and survival, and is targeted by a number of viruses at different phases of their infection cycle to control translation. Whether and how insect viruses interact with this pathway remain poorly addressed. Here, we investigated the role of PI3K/Akt/TOR signalling during lethal infection of insect cells with an insect parvovirus.

Les densovirus : une « massive attaque » chez les arthropodes.

Densoviruses (DVs) are parvoviruses of arthropods and causative agents of natural epizootics in insects and crustaceans populations. Structurally simple, these small DNA viruses, display a large diversity of genomic sequences, structures and organizations. Such diversity, together with the diversity of their invertebrate hosts, from shrimps to mosquitoes and recently including sea stars, suggests that DVs are largely unknown and ubiquitous in the environment.

Densovirus crosses the insect midgut by transcytosis and disturbs the epithelial barrier function.

Densoviruses are parvoviruses that can be lethal for insects of different orders at larval stages. Although the horizontal transmission mechanisms are poorly known, densoviral pathogenesis usually starts with the ingestion of contaminated food by the host. Depending on the virus, this leads to replication restricted to the midgut or excluding it.