Development of recombinant viral insecticides by expression of an insect‐specific toxin and insect‐specific enzyme in nuclear polyhedrosis viruses

Bruce D. Hammock, Billy F. McCutchen, Jeffrey Beetham, Prabhakara V. Choudary, Elizabeth Fowler, Reiji Ichinose, Vernon K. Ward, Joanna M. Vickers, Bryony C. Bonning, Lawrence G. Harshman, David Grant, Tamon Uematsu, Susumu Maeda

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

As supplements to classical chemical insecticides, two approaches to develop recombinant baculovirus insecticides are described. In one approach an insect‐specific toxin is expressed leading to a dramatic reduction in time to death. In the second approach an insect juvenile hormone esterase is expressed which leads to a reduction in feeding. Modifications of the wildtype esterase led to viruses which reduced the time to death as efffectively as did the toxin‐expressing virus. In both cases existing recombinant viruses are viewed as leads, and approaches to further improvement in the engineered viruses are suggested. Many of these approaches are based on analogy with the development of classical synthetic insecticides. Using these viruses as examples, the potential utility and limitations of recombinant viruses and other biological insecticides are discussed. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)315-344
Number of pages30
JournalArchives of Insect Biochemistry and Physiology
Volume22
Issue number3-4
DOIs
StatePublished - 1993
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biochemistry
  • Physiology
  • Insect Science

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