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Title: ABSTRACT FOR 1999 CONGRESS ON IN VITRO BIOLOGY SIVB 1999

Author
item Gundersen-Rindal, Dawn
item Lynn, Dwight
item Huber, Curtis
item Dougherty, Edward

Submitted to: Congress on In Vitro Biology
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/15/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The braconid wasp Glyptapanteles indiensis infects its natural host, gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar), with a polydnavirus (GiPDV) to suppress the immune system during parasitization. DNA from the GiPDV genome has been shown to transform cell lines derived from gypsy moth in vitro (McKelvey et al., 1996). It was recently demonstrated that GiPDV DNA is also capable of transforming in vitro to varying degrees lepidopteran [cabbage looper (Trichoplusia ni), fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda), Indian meal moth (Plodia interpunctella), tobacco budworm (Heliothis virescens)] and coleopteran, corn rootworm (Diabrotica undecimpunctata ), insect cell lines derived from various somatic tissue types (Gundersen-Rindal et al., 1999). An insect cell line derived from a dipteran, mosquito (Aedes albopictus), could not be transformed with GiPDV. The ability of GiPDV to persist within and transform these insect cell lines has been investigated and it has been determined that partial GiPDV DNA is maintained in transformed cells in an integrated state. Site(s) for GiPDV integration within the insect cell chromosome have been isolated and compared for insect cell lines derived from natural host and non-host Lepidoptera for identification of target sequences. Because of the unusual ability to integrate and wide in vitro host range, GiPDV DNA has potential to be developed as a vehicle for transformation of insect cells.