Dissecting insect development: baculovirus-mediated gene silencing in insects

A novel concept applying baculovirus-mediated gene silencing to study insec t gene function and regulation is described in this paper. A recombinant ba culovirus, Autographa californica multicapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV) , was constructed with the juvenile hormone esterase (JHE) gene from the to bacco budworm Heliothis virescens in the antisense orientation, driven by t he viral p10 promoter. Infection with this recombinant greatly reduced the haemolymph JHE level and resulted in aberrant morphogenesis of final-instar H. virescens larvae. The body organization remained larval, although the c uticle became hard and brown, similar to pupal cuticle. These results demon strated that baculovirus-mediated gene silencing can be accomplished and ut ilized to dissect insect development and to design a new class of baculovir us insecticides.