APOPTOSIS - ITS ROLE IN MICROBIAL CONTROL OF INSECT PESTS

Very little is known concerning insect defence against virus infection . Insect haemocytes can provide cell-mediated immunity to bacterial pa thogens through phagocytes and encapsulation, Neither cell mediated no r humoral immunity has been demonstrated against virus infection in in sects. (Apoptosis' is a distinctive type of programmed cell death, a p henomenon evolved as a primitive viral defence in certain vertebrate a nimals and invertebrates. In these system lacking humoral immunity, an tiviral defence mechanism is gaining importance in cellular defence ag ainst viral infection, However, insect baculoviruses like nuclear poly hedrosis virus, granulosis virus and other DNA viruses of insects evol ved methods apparently to bypass this defence phenomenon of apoptosis by directly blocking this response with the possession of p35 gene. Th e future possibility of blocking the apoptosis for increasing the viru lence and host range of certain baculoviruses has been presented, It i s very important for assessing the potential risk of genetically impro ved baculoviruses. Further understanding the mechanisms for the develo pment of robust cells for in vitro multiplication of insect viruses ha ve also been discussed in this paper.