title: Open reading frame 60 of the Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus plays a role in budded virus production.
abstract: Open reading frame 60 (bm60) of the Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV) is a conserved gene among group I and some group II NPVs. bm60 encodes a late expressed protein that localizes to both the cytoplasm and nucleus of infected cells. This paper describes the characterization of a BmNPV mutant (vbm60-Null) lacking functional bm60. It was observed that the production of budded virus (BV) was reduced by nearly an order of magnitude relative to wt virus in vbm60-Null-infected BmN cells and B. mori larvae. Quantitative real-time PCR assay showed that the viral DNA replication was affected in infected cells due to disruption of bm60. Larval bioassays showed that the speed of kill of vbm60-Null virus was greatly reduced, as it took approximately 28-36 h longer to kill the fifth instar B. mori larvae. These results suggest that BmNPV bm60 is not essential for viral replication, but required for efficient BV production.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Life Science and School of Finance and Economics, Jiangsu University, 301 Xuefu Road, Zhenjiang 212013, Jiangsu, PR China.
authors.forename: Zhong-Jian
authors.initials: ZJ
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Li-Hua
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.forename: Shi-Heng
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: An
authors.forename: Qin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: Enoch Y
authors.initials: EY
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Ke-Ping
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Chuan-Xi
authors.initials: CX
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D012831:Bombyx / Q000821:virology*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D017353:Gene Deletion; D007814:Larva / Q000821:virology; D017924:Nucleopolyhedroviruses / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity / Q000502:physiology*; D016019:Survival Analysis; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D014779:Virus Replication
chemical_list: D014764:Viral Proteins