Acquired resistance to a nucleopolyhedrovirus in the smaller tea tortrix Adoxophyes honmai (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) after selection by serial viral administration.

A laboratory colony of Adoxophyes honmai was selected for resistance over 156 generations by feeding neonate larvae of every generation with the LC or LC of its nucleopolyhedrovirus, Adoxophyes honmai nucleopolyhedrovirus (AdhoNPV). A significant difference in LC values between the selected (R-strain) and unselected (S1- and S2-strain) strains was first observed after three generations of selection, and the resistance level then increased continuously. The highest degree of acquired resistance, based on the ratio of the LC values of R- and S1-strains, was more than 400,000-fold. After selection was stopped at either the 21st or the 149th generation, LC values did not decrease significantly, suggesting that resistance of the R-strain to AdhoNPV was stable. To assess which of the two routes of baculovirus infection is affected by resistance to AdhoNPV, 5th instar larvae of the R-strain were inoculated orally and intrahemocoelically with AdhoNPV and their susceptibility was compared to that of S-strain. The ratio of the LC values of selected and unselected strains was 91-fold when budded viruses were injected into 5th instar larvae, but was 107,000-fold after oral inoculation. These results indicate that the resistance mechanism of the R-strain of A. honmai disrupts both midgut primary infection and hemocoelic secondary infection.