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Isolation and characterization of a Cotesia rubecula bracovirus gene expressed in the lepidopteran Pieris rapae

Richard Glatz^1,

¹ Insect Molecular Biology, University of Adelaide, Waite Campus, Glen Osmond, SA 5064, Australia
² Department of Zoology and Entomology, School of Life Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia

Correspondence
Sassan Asgari
s.asgari{at}uq.edu.au

Polydnaviruses are endogenous particles that are crucial for the survival of endoparasitoid wasps, providing active suppression of the immune function of the lepidopteran host in which wasp larvae develop. The Cotesia rubecula bracovirus (CrBV) is unique in that only four gene products are detected in larval host (Pieris rapae) tissues and expression of CrBV genes is transient, occurring between 4 and 12 h post-parasitization. Two of the four genes, CrV1 and CrV3, have been characterized. CrV1 is a secreted glycoprotein that has been implicated in depolymerization of the actin cytoskeleton of host haemocytes, leading to haemocyte inactivation; CrV3 is a multimeric C-type lectin that shares homology with insect immune lectins. Here, a third CrBV-specific gene is described, CrV2, which is expressed in larval P. rapae tissues. CrV2, which is transcribed in haemocytes and fat body cells, has an ORF of 963 bp that produces a glycoprotein of approximately 40 kDa. CrV2 is secreted into haemolymph and appears to be internalized by host haemocytes. CrV2 has a coiled-coil region predicted at its C-terminus, which may be involved in the formation of putative CrV2 trimers that are detected in haemolymph of parasitized host larvae.

The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession number for the sequence reported in this paper is AY631272.

Present address: CSIRO Health Sciences and Nutrition, Therapeutic and Diagnostic Technologies, PO Box 10041 Adelaide BC, Australia.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				G. Zhang, O. Schmidt, and S. Asgari A Novel Venom Peptide from an Endoparasitoid Wasp Is Required for Expression of Polydnavirus Genes in Host Hemocytes J. Biol. Chem., October 1, 2004; 279(40): 41580 - 41585. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]