Virus efficacy of recombined Autographa californica M nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV) on tea pest Ectropis obliqua

Ectropis obliqua is a major tea pest and chitin synthase (CHS) plays a key role in the pest growth and development. A 192 bp conserved domain from E. obliqua CHS gene was cloned and it was used to construct recombined Autographa californica M nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV) with double-stranded RNA interference (dsRNAi) method. The recombined Ac M NPV virus could propagate in host cells sf9. Injection test showed that the virus efficacy of the recombined Ac M NPV on E. obliqua larvae was significantly enhanced. It is considered that the CHS dsRNAi mediated by the nuclear polyhedrosis virus will be interesting for development of alternative bio-pesticide to control the tea pest E. obliqua . Keywords: Chitin synthase, baculovirus, double-stranded RNA interference, Ectropis obliqua African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 9(33), pp. 5412-5418, 16 August, 2010