title: In vivo gene transfer into the honeybee using a nucleopolyhedrovirus vector.
abstract: The honeybee Apis mellifera L. is a social insect and one of the most industrially important insects. We examined whether a baculovirus-mediated retrotransposon is applicable to in vivo transfer of exogenous genes to the honeybees. Honeybee larvae and pupae were injected with two types of recombinant Autographa californica nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcNPV) vectors, one that includes the enhanced green fluorescent protein gene (egfp) as a reporter to be inserted into the honeybee genome, and another that includes the reverse transcriptase gene responsible for the insertion. Fluorescence was observed in most of the viral-injected larvae and pupae. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and immunoblotting confirmed egfp mRNA and eGFP expression in these honeybees, although egfp insertion into the honeybee genome was not confirmed. These results indicate that AcNPV vectors can be used for the transfer and transient expression of an exogenous gene in the larval and pupal honeybees.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshiya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ando
authors.forename: Tomoko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fujiyuki
authors.forename: Tomoko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kawashima
authors.forename: Mizue
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Morioka
authors.forename: Takeo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kubo
authors.forename: Haruhiko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fujiwara
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees / Q000235:genetics*; D005822:Genetic Vectors / Q000235:genetics*; D017924:Nucleopolyhedroviruses / Q000235:genetics*; D015202:Protein Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D014162:Transfection / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D011994:Recombinant Proteins