Entomopoxviruses
Srini Perera, Zhen Li, Lillian Pavlik and Basil Arif
from: Insect Virology (Edited by: Sassan Asgari and Karyn N. Johnson). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2010)
Abstract
Like other poxviruses, entomopoxviruses (EPVs) replicate in the cytoplasm of infected cells but form proteinic bodies (occlusion bodies) in which virions are occluded. Unlike baculoviruses, EPVs appear to utilize haemocytes to disseminate infection to permissive larval cells and tissues. Our observations showed that the tracheal system is not the conduit to spread virus infection in larval tissues. Poxviruses contain a large, linear double stranded DNA genome but in the case of EPVs, the genome is extremely AT-rich. To date, only two EPV genomes have been fully sequenced. Indeed, the very high AT content makes sequencing and assembly a bit of a problem. Comparative analyses of all sequenced poxviruses revealed 49 genes conserved among all poxviruses. The conserved genes are involved in basic functions such as transcription, DNA replication and virion assembly read more ...
