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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Columbia, Missouri » Biological Control of Insects Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #199875
Title: In Vitro Host Range of the Hz-1 Non-Occluded Virus in Arthropod Cell Lines

Author
item McIntosh, Arthur
item Grasela, James
item IGNOFFO, CARLO - RETIRED ARS

Submitted to: In Vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/10/2007
Publication Date: 5/14/2007
Citation: McIntosh, A.H., Grasela, J.J., Ignoffo, C.M. 2007. In vitro host range of the Hz-1 non-occluded virus in arthropod cell lines. In Vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11626-007-9032-6.

Interpretive Summary: One of the major disadvantages in the use of insect viruses such as baculoviruses in biological control is their narrow host range, usually infecting only a few species of insect pests. This is a disadvantage since commercial companies would like to produce a microbial product that will control a whole range of pests in order to make their production more economical. In the course of this study, it was found that another type of insect virus was able to infect a wider range of insect cells grown in culture than baculoviruses. This finding will impact both scientists and industry in providing information that could expand the host range of baculoviruses as biological control agents and make them not only more attractive but efficient as well.

Technical Abstract: A total of 13 insect cell lines spanning 4 Orders and including Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Diptera and Homoptera were tested for their ability to replicate the non-occluded virus Hz-1. Only the Lepidpteran cell lines were able to support replication of the virus with TN-CL1 and BCIRL-HZ-AM1 producing the highest titers of 2.4 x 10**8 TCID50/ml and 2.0 x 10**8 TCID50/ml respectively. A codling moth cell line (CP-169) was the only Lepidopteran cell line that did not replicate the virus and transfection of this cell line with Hz-1 DNA as well failed to replicate the virus. Also transfection with DNA from a recombinant carrying the red fluorescent protein gene (AcMNPVhsp70 Red) failed to be expressed in CP-169 cells. The replicative growth cycle of Hz-1 in BCIRL-HZ-AM1 cells showed that this virus replicated rapidly starting at 16 h post-inoculation and reaching a peak titer of 1.0 x 10**8 TCID50/ml 56 h post inoculation. Hz-1 when compared with several other baculoviruses has the widest in vitro host spectrum.