Skip to main content
ARS Home » Midwest Area » Columbia, Missouri » Biological Control of Insects Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #78060
Title: REPLICATION OF A DIAMONDBACK MOTH BACULOVIRUS ISOLATE IN LEPIDOPTERAN CELL LINES

Author
item KARIUKI, CHARLES - NTNL AGRIC RES INST-KENYA
item McIntosh, Arthur

Submitted to: Congress on In Vitro Biology
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/1/1997
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Insect cell cultures have traditionally and successfully been employed to elucidate the basic biology of insect pathogens. In the present study several lepidopteran cell lines were compared for their ability to replicate a nuclear polyhedrosis virus (NPV) isolated from the economically important pest Plutella xylostella (diamondback moth), designated as PxMNPV. The selection of a suitable cell line is important in the large scale in vitro production of PxMNPV. The cell lines employed in this study were: Plutella xylostella (PxEM1), Helicoverpa zea (HzFB33), Heliothis subflexa (HsAM1), Heliothis virescens (HvAM1), Trichoplusia ni (TN-CL1), and Spodoptera frugiperda (Sf21). All cell lines were grown in Ex-Cell 400**TM with the exception of TN-CL1 which was propagated in TC 199-MK. Cell cultures were inoculated at an MOI of 1 and incubated at 28 deg C for 7 days. Each cell line was evaluated for the percentage of cells infected, ,production of extracellular virus (ECV) by TCID50 and occlusion body (OB) productivity. The highest percentage of infected cells were observed for TN-CL1 (98%) and HvAM1 (95%) with TCID50/ml titers of 1.5 x 10**7 and 1.7 x 10**7 respectively. The highest concentration of OB was produced by TN-CL1 (50 x 10**6/ml) followed by HvAM1 (16 x 10**6/ml).