• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Entomolohy Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.110-110
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• 2005

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.19-28
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• 2017

Polydnaviruses (PDVs) are a group of double-stranded DNA viruses symbiotic to some endoparasitoid wasps. Cotesia plutellae bracovirus (CpBV) is a PDV symbiotic to an endoparasitoid wasp, C. plutellae, parasitizing young larvae of Plutella xylostella. An early expressed gene, CpBV-ELP1, plays an important role in the parasitism by suppressing host cellular immunity by its cytotoxic activity against hemocytes. This study aimed to test its oral toxicity against insect pest by expressing it in a recombinant tobacco plant. A recombinant CpBV-ELP1 protein was produced using a baculovirus expression system and secreted to cell culture medium. The cell cultured media were used to purify CpBV-ELP1 by a sequential array of purification steps: ammonium sulfate fractionation, size exclusion chromatography, and ion exchange chromatography. Purified rCpBV-ELP1 exhibited a significant cytotoxicity against Spodoptera exigua hemocytes. CpBV-ELP1 was highly toxic to the fifth instar larvae of S. exigua by injection to hemocoel. It also showed a significant oral toxicity to fifth instar larvae of S. exigua by a leaf-dipping assay. CpBV-ELP1 was cloned into pBI121 vector under CaMV 35S promoter with opaline synthase terminator. Resulting recombinant vector (pBI121-ELP1) was used to transform Agrobacterium tumefaciens LBA4404. The recombinant bacteria were then used to induce callus of a tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum Xanthi) leaves and subsequent generation (T1) plants were selected. T1 generation tobacco plants expressing CpBV-ELP1 gave significant insecticidal activities against S. exigua larvae. These results suggest that CpBV-ELP1 gene can be used to control insect pests by constructing transgenic crops.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.331-338
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• 2014

Cystatins (CSTs) are reversible and competitive inhibitors of C1A cysteine proteases, corresponding to papain-like cathepsins in plants and animals. A viral CST (CpBV-CST1) was identified from a polydnavirus, Cotesia plutellae bracovirus (CpBV). Our previous study indicated that a transient expression of CpBV-CST1 interfered with immune response and development of Plutella xylostella larvae. To directly demonstrate the protein function, this study produced a recombinant CpBV-CST1 protein (rCpBV-CST1) using bacterial expression system to determine its inhibitory activity against cysteine protease and to assess its physiological alteration in insect immune and development. The open reading frame of CpBV-CST1 encodes a polypeptide of 138 amino acids (${\approx}15kDa$). rCpBV-cystatin protein in BL21 STAR (DE3) competent cells containing a recombinant pGEX4T-3:CpBV-CST1 was over-expressed by 0.5 mM IPTG for 4 h. In biological activity assay, the purified rCpBV-CST1 showed a significant inhibition against papain activity. It inhibited a cellular immune response of hemocyte nodule formation in the beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua. Moreover, its oral administration retarded larval development of the diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella in a dose-dependent manner. These results suggest that CpBV-CST1 may be applied to control insect pest populations.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.386-392
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• 2015

A novel recombinant bacmid, bEasyBm, that enables the easy and fast generation of pure recombinant baculovirus without any purification step was constructed. In bEasyBm, attR recombination sites were introduced to facilitate the generation of a recombinant viral genome by in vitro transposition. Moreover, the extracellular RNase gene from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, barnase, was expressed under the control of the Cotesia plutellae bracovirus early promoter to negatively select against the nonrecombinant background. The bEasyBm bacmid could only replicate in host insect cells when the barnase gene was replaced with the gene of interest by in vitro transposition. When bEasyBm was transposed with pDualBac-EGFP, the resulting recombinant virus, EasyBm-EGFP, showed high levels of EGFP expression efficiency compared with that of non-purified recombinant virus BmGOZA-EGFP, which was constructed using the bBmGOZA system. In addition, nonrecombinant backgrounds were not detected in unpurified EasyBm-EGFP stocks. Based on these results, a high-throughput system for the generation of multiple recombinant viruses at a time was established.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.7-15
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• 2015

CpBV (Cotesia plutellae bracovirus) is a polydnavirus and encodes a cystatin (CpBV-CST1) gene. Its overexpression suppresses insect immunity and alters insect developmental processes. This study aimed to construct a genetically modified (GM) tobacco to further explore the physiological function of the viral cystatin and to apply to control insect pests. To this end, the transgenic tobacco lines were screened in expression of the target gene and assessed in insecticidal activity. A recombinant vector (pBI121-CST) was prepared and used to transform a bacterium, Agrobacterium tumefasciens. The transformed bacteria were used to generate transgenic tobacco lines, which were induced to grow callus and resulted in about 92% of shoot regeneration. The regenerated plants were screened by PCR analysis to confirm the insertion of the target gene in the plant genome. In addition, the expression of the target gene was assessed in the regenerated plants by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). The qRT-PCR analysis showed that the transgenic line plant expressed the target gene about 17 times more than the control tobacco, indicating a stable insertion and expression of the target gene in the transgenic tobacco line. The insecticidal activity was then analyzed using the screened transgenic tobacco lines against the teneral 1st instar larvae of the oriental tobacco budworm, Helicoverpa assulta. Though there was a variation in the insecticidal efficacy among transgenic lines, T9 and T12 lines exhibited more than 95% mortality at 7 days after feeding treatment. These results suggest that CpBV-CST1 is a useful genetic resource to be used to generate GM crop against insect pests.