title: Characterization of three ascovirus isolates from cotton insects.
abstract: Three new ascovirus isolates were discovered from lepidopteran larvae in cotton fields in Blackville, South Carolina, USA, and were named TnAV-2c, TnAV-2d, and HvAV-3f. TnAV-2c and TnAV-2d were compared by restriction endonuclease (REN) profiles and found to be similar. HvAV-3f was isolated from Helicoverpa zea, and bears remarkable dissimilarity in REN profiles to the reported SeAV-5a from Spodoptera exigua but DNA hybridization shows they are closely related. Major capsid protein (MCP) and delta DNA polymerase from the three isolates were sequenced, which suggests the three isolates are novel. Phylogenetic analyses showed that TnAV-2c is distantly related to other lepidopteran ascoviruses. HvAV-3f and SeAV-5a may also be variants of the same species based on Southern, Western, and MCP/DNA polymerase gene sequence analyses. High levels of TnAV-2 infection in an H. zea population (as high as 74%) were recorded in a cotton field in Blackville, SC. Observations in this field showed that infection by ascovirus altered the feeding behavior of H. zea larvae.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, 32 Pearson Hall, Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056, USA. Chengx@muohio.edu
authors.forename: Xiao-Wen
authors.initials: XW
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Lihua
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Gerald R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Carner
authors.forename: Basil M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Arif
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D029223:Ascoviridae / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity / Q000648:ultrastructure; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D005814:Genes, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D007814:Larva / Q000821:virology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009036:Moths / Q000821:virology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017385:Sequence Homology