Interaction of Heliothis armigera nuclear polyhedrosis viral capsid protein with its host actin

Self-biotinylation and site-specific double labeling of baculovirus using quantum dots for single-virus in-situ tracking

Single-virus labeling and tracking represent a powerful tool to study virus-cell interactions. Using baculovirus as a model, here we developed a biochemical method for labeling both the viral envelope and the viral capsid of a virus. Viral envelope of the baculovirus AcMNPV was self-biotinylated and site-specifically conjugated with quantum dots (QDs) following one-step binding reaction, while the viral nucleocapsid was site-specifically labeled with green fluorescent protein (GFP) during viral replication. The established procedure of labeling did not affect viral infectivity, showing that the double-labeled virus retained functional structure and could be tracked for viral localization and movement in the host cells. The double-labeled virus also demonstrated the potential to be used for in-situ and real-time visualizing the internalization of a single viral particle into the host cells. Furthermore, the disassembly processes of the viral envelope and the viral nucleocapsid could be monitored for a long period of time (up to 2 h). Using the established method, several interaction details between the labeled baculoviruses and the host cells have been revealed. Given its advantages in high efficiency, high specificity, convenience and the maintenance of viral infectivity, the established approach provides a promising means for elucidating virus-cell interactions.

Host filamentous actin is associated with Heliothis armigera single nucleopolyhedrosis virus (HaSNPV) nucleocapsid transport to the host nucleus

VP39 is the major capsid protein of Heliothis armigera nucleopolyhedrovirus (HaSNPV), and it might have induced the aggregation of host cellular actin in vitro in our previous study. We demonstrated here that VP39 could interact with host actin in vivo in Helicoverpazea (Hz-AM1 cells) through coimmunoprecipitation assay. With confocal immunofluorescence microscopy, it was confirmed further that the released HaSNPV nucleocapsids/VP39s in the host cytoplasm (0.5 hours after infection) colocalized where the actin aggregated and that the nucleocapsids/VP39s were transported from the host cytoplasm to the nucleus (2 hours after infection). Because cytochalasin D (CD) was used to prevent host global actin from forming filamentous structures, the infection efficiency of the recombinant virus HaSNPV/gfpdeltap74, with the gfp gene inserted into HaSNPV p74 gene loci, was decreased to 7.34%, whereas it was 34.7% in normal host cells and 55.7% in the cells whose microtubules had been destroyed by colchicin. Ultramicroscopy assay revealed that HaSNPV nucleocapsids could enter the cytoplasm of CD-treated cells but could not be transported to the nucleus, which resulted in the lower infection efficiency of HaSNPV/gfpdeltap74 in CD-treated cells. However, transportation of the nucleocapsids was not inhibited in colchicin-treated cells, demonstrating that the transportation of HaSNPV nucleocapsid from the cytoplasm to the nucleus was associated with actin filaments but not with microtubules, a conclusion that is also strongly supported by evidence from the RNAi interference of host actin during HaSNPV infection.

The baculoviruses occlusion-derived virus: virion structure and function

Baculoviruses play an important ecological role regulating the size of insect populations. For many years, baculoviruses have been applied as targeted biocontrol agents against forestry and agriculture pests. Baculovirus insecticides are effective against insect pests such as velvetbean caterpillar (Anticarsia gemmatalis ), cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa zea ), and gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar ). Baculoviruses are transmitted to insects by the oral route mediated by the occlusion-derived virus (ODV). The ODV is also specialized to exploit the insect midgut that is one of the most extreme biological environments where the viruses are subject to caustic pH and digestive proteases. The molecular biology of the ODV reveals new frontiers in protein chemistry. Finally, ODVs establishes infection in insect gut tissues that are virtually nonsupportive to virus replication and which are continuously sloughed away. ODVs carry with them a battery of proteins that enable them to rapidly exploit and harness these unstable cells for virus replication.

Construction of a transposon-mediated baculovirus vector Hanpvid and a new cell line for expressing barnase

In this study we developed the transposon-mediated shuttle vector 'Hanpvid', which composed of HaNPV (Heliothis armigera nuclear polyhedrosis virus) genomic DNA and a transposon cassette from Bacmid of Bac-to-Bac system. Hanpvid replicates in E. coli in the same way as Bacmid and retains infective function in cotton bollworm cells (Hz-AM1). Using Hanpvid we constructed a recombinant virus, which could infect Hz-AM1 cells and generate recombinant HaNPV (rHa-Bar) containing the barnase gene, a ribonuclease gene from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens. Since the expression vector carrying barnase gene cannot replicate in the absence of barstar, a specific inhibitor of barnase, we constructed a new cotton bollworm cell line (AM1-NB) using the marker rescue method. In AM1-NB barstar was integrated into the cellular chromosome to sustain the replication of rHa-Bar. To screen out recombinant HaNPV for potential use as biopesticide, Hz-AM1 and AM1-NB cell lines were infected with rHa-Bar, respectively. The results obtained indicate that Viral progenies in AM1-NB were 23 and 160 times greater than those in Hz-AM1 48 h and 72 h after infection, respectively. With additional insertion of the polyhedron gene from AcNPV (Autographa californica nuclear polyhedrosis virus) into the Hanpvid genome, rHa-Bar regained the polyhedron phenotype and its pest-killing rate greatly improved. Toxic analysis showed that the lethal dosages (LD(50)) and the lethal time(s) (LT(50)) of rHa-Bar were reduced by 20 % and 30 %, respectively, compared to wt-HaNPV in the third instar larvae of cotton bollworm. This study shows that in AM1-NB barnase can be effectively produced and used as pest-killing agent for the biological control of cotton pests.

The Heliothis armigera single nucleocapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus envelope protein P74 is required for infection of the host midgut

In order to study the function of the envelope protein P74 of Heliothis armigera single nucleocapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus (HaSNPV), a p74-null recombinant baculovirus, rHa-gfdeltap74, was constructed by inserting gfp driven by the polyhedrin promoter into the p74 locus of HaSNPV genome. The resulting p74-inactivation occlusion-derived viruses (ODV) failed to infect its natural host larvae per os. However, its inability of oral infectivity was rescued using the purified P74 protein expressed by Bac-to-Bac system in Hz-AM1 cells. Feeding the purified P74 protein along with the p74 deletion mutant virus rHa-gfpdeltap74 to H. armigera larvae resulted in the rescue of oral infectivity in a dose dependent manner. The P74 protein was expressed in-frame with GFP to create a P74-GFP chimera for studying the localization of P74, the GFP portion of the chimera facilitating the visualization of the trafficking of P74 in cells. The P74-GFP chimeric proteins localized in the intranuclear ring zone and accumulated into microvesicles. In addition, the specific and saturable binding of P74 protein to its host brush border membrane vesicles (BBMVs) was involved in the invasion of virus. Further investigations (pull-down assay) showed that an about 30 kDa protein in the BBMVs was involved in the specific binding. These results demonstrated that the P74 protein is essential for oral infectivity of ODV and plays a role in midgut attachment and fusion.