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Development of recombinant viral insecticides by expression of an insect‐specific toxin and insect‐specific enzyme in nuclear polyhedrosis viruses
Author(s) -
Hammock Bruce D.,
McCutchen Billy F.,
Beetham Jeffrey,
Choudary Prabhakara V.,
Fowler Elizabeth,
Ichinose Reiji,
Ward Ver K.,
Vickers Joanna M.,
Bonning Bryony C.,
Harshman Lawrence G.,
Grant David,
Uematsu Tamon,
Maeda Susumu
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
archives of insect biochemistry and physiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.576
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1520-6327
pISSN - 0739-4462
DOI - 10.1002/arch.940220303
Subject(s) - biology , recombinant dna , insect , baculoviridae , toxin , virus , virology , esterase , juvenile hormone , enzyme , microbiology and biotechnology , spodoptera , biochemistry , botany , gene
As supplements to classical chemical insecticides, two approaches to develop recombinant baculovirus insecticides are described. In one approach an insect‐specific toxin is expressed leading to a dramatic reduction in time to death. In the second approach an insect juvenile hormone esterase is expressed which leads to a reduction in feeding. Modifications of the wildtype esterase led to viruses which reduced the time to death as efffectively as did the toxin‐expressing virus. In both cases existing recombinant viruses are viewed as leads, and approaches to further improvement in the engineered viruses are suggested. Many of these approaches are based on analogy with the development of classical synthetic insecticides. Using these viruses as examples, the potential utility and limitations of recombinant viruses and other biological insecticides are discussed. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.