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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Gainesville, Florida » Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology » Mosquito and Fly Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #282460
Title: Occurrence and phylogenetic characterization of a baculovirus isolated from Culex quinquefasciatus in São Paulo State, Brazil

Author
item COUTINHO, CARLOS - Butantan Institute
item ALVES, RAFAEL - Butantan Institute
item Sanscrainte, Neil
item VIVIANI, ANDREA - Vector-Borne Disease Control Program
item PAULO, SANTOS - Vector-Borne Disease Control Program
item SOUZA, POLYANA - Butantan Institute
item CARVALHO-MELLO, ISABEL - Butantan Institute
item Becnel, James

Submitted to: Archives of Virology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/6/2012
Publication Date: 7/1/2012
Citation: Coutinho, C.J., Alves, R., Sanscrainte, N.D., Viviani, A., Paulo, S.F., Souza, P.A., Carvalho-Mello, I.M., Becnel, J.J. 2012. Occurrence and phylogenetic characterization of a baculovirus isolated from Culex quinquefasciatus in São Paulo State, Brazil. Archives of Virology. DOI: 10.1007/s00705-012-1372-1.

Interpretive Summary: A naturally occurring virus (baculovirus) that infects and kills mosquitoes that vector West Nile virus is being investigated by ARS scientists at the Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology, Gainesville Florida in collaboration with cooperators in SaoPaulo, Brazil, at the Instituto Butantan, Laboratório de Imunologia Viral. This is the first record of a baculovirus from Brazil. This discovery will provide new biological and molecular information to investigate and understand basic mechanisms involved in infectivity and host range that will enhance capabilities to use these viruses for mosquito control.

Technical Abstract: The aim of this study was to assess the occurrence of baculovirus infections in mosquitoes and characterize them by using molecular tools. Fortnightly collections were made of mosquito larvae in the city of Caraguatatuba. Six larvae of Culex quinquefasciatus were isolated that had white cysts (nodules) in epithelia cells of the posterior midgut indicative of infection by a baculovirus. These larvae were subjected to DNA extraction. DNA was amplified producing a fragment of around 600nt of the lef-8 gene and 400 nt of Pif-2 gene. The sequences were aligned by ClustalX 2.0 with partial sequences of the lef-8 gene of baculoviruses isolated from other insect orders taken from genebank and edited and the phylogenetic analysis was performed. The phylogenetic analysis performed with the lef-8 and pif-2 gene demonstrated that the baculovirus identified in Culex quinquefasciatus in Caraguatatuba region is most closely related to the Deltabaculovirus Culex nigripalpus Nucleopolyhedrovirus.