Full Length Research Paper

Virus efficacy of recombined Autographa californica M nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV) on tea pest Ectropis obliqua

Yue-Rong Liang¹, Chen Lin¹, Xun-Lei Wang¹, Jian-Hui Ye¹, Jian-Liang Lu²*

¹Zhejiang University Tea Research Institute, Hangzhou 310029, PR China.

²The State Agriculture Ministry Laboratory of Horticulture Plant Growth, Development and Quality Improvement, Hangzhou 310029, PR China.

*Corresponding author: E-mail: jllu@zju.edu.cn.

Abbreviations: CHS, Chitin synthase; AcMNPV, Autographa californica M nucleopolyhedrovirus; dsRNAi, double-stranded RNA interference; RISC, RNA-induced silencing complex; PTGS, post-transcriptional gene silencing; NPV, nuclear polyhedrosis virus; RNAi, RNA interference.

Accepted 16 July, 2010

   Abstract

Ectropis obliqua is a major tea pest and chitin synthase (CHS) plays a key role in the pest growth and development. A 192 bp conserved domain from E. obliqua CHS gene was cloned and it was used to construct recombined Autographa californica M nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV) with double-stranded RNA interference (dsRNAi) method. The recombined AcMNPV virus could propagate in host cells sf9. Injection test showed that the virus efficacy of the recombined AcMNPV on E. obliqua larvae was significantly enhanced. It is considered that the CHS dsRNAi mediated by the nuclear polyhedrosis virus will be interesting for development of alternative bio-pesticide to control the tea pest E. obliqua.

Key words: Chitin synthase, baculovirus, double-stranded RNA interference, Ectropis obliqua.