Posted: May 22nd, 2023
It has been shown that baculoviruses form a large family of viruses that contain DNA protein. They especially infect arthropods, with high cases recorded in lepidopteran insects [8]. LdMNPV is such one baculovirus that is made up of 161,046 bases with a G + C content of 57.5%. It also has 163 putative open reading frames (also referred to as ORFs) of ≥150 nucleotides [9].
Recent studies conducted on the LdMNPV genome have indicated that at least 9 percent of it is made up of 16 repeated genes that are linked to Autographa californica MNPV (AcMNPV).
Hundreds of insect species are infected by baculoviruses, and the variant of the virus have been shown to be dependent on the specificity of the insect’s species. Baculoviruses are also differentiated by the pathology of their infection cycle as well as the size of the genome and G + C content. AcMNPV is the most common baculovirus, and it shares some similarities with LdMNPV.
The genome of LdMNPV is larger than that of other baculoviruses such as AcMNPV, BmNPV and OpMNPV [10]. Studies have shown that LdMNPV has 13 homologous regions (hrs), and out of the 163 ORFs it contains, 114 of them are related to those of AcMNPV.
LdMNPV has been put into commercial use, given the fact that it is regarded as one of the many viable microbial insecticides. For example, the USDA Forest Service has used it to control gypsy moth populations in forests. This is especially so during spot eradication in localities which are environmentally sensitive.
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