Analysis of oral infection and helicase gene of the nucleopolyhedroviruses isolated from Philosamia cynthia ricini and Antheraea pernyi

摘要

Philosamia cynthia ricini is an important commercial silkworm in Asia. In this report, a nucleopolyhedrovirus isolated from P. cynthia ricini (PhcyNPV) larva was purified and compared with Antheraea pernyi nucleopolyhedrovirus (AnpeNPV), a pathogen of A. pernyi, another commercial silkworm in China. The two viruses had similar polyhedral morphology and shared high sequence homologue of viral fragments including the p143 gene. However, the restriction fragments, digested with SalI, XhoI, HindIII and PstI, respectively, were different. The cross-infectivity of the two viruses was also tested. AnpeNPV caused 57% mortality in larvae of P. cynthia rici, whereas PcrNPV did not kill larvae of A. pernyi. Results indicated that PhcyNPV and AnpeNPV had closed relatedness, and that PhcyNPV might be a variant of AnpeNPV.