Abstract
Baculovirus-insect cell technologies are applied in the production of complex proteins, veterinary and human vaccines, gene delivery vectors‚ and biopesticides. Better understanding of how baculoviruses and insect cells interact would facilitate baculovirus-based production. While complete genomic sequences are available for over 58 baculovirus species, little insect genomic information is known. The release of the Bombyx mori and Plutella xylostella genomes, the accumulation of EST sequences for several Lepidopteran species, and especially the availability of two genome-scale analysis tools, namely oligonucleotide microarrays and next generation sequencing (NGS), have facilitated expression studies to generate a rich picture of insect gene responses to baculovirus infections. This review presents current knowledge on the interaction dynamics of the baculovirus-insect system‚ which is relatively well studied in relation to nucleocapsid transportation, apoptosis, and heat shock responses, but is still poorly understood regarding responses involved in pro-survival pathways, DNA damage pathways, protein degradation, translation, signaling pathways, RNAi pathways, and importantly metabolic pathways for energy, nucleotide and amino acid production. We discuss how the two genome-scale transcriptomic tools can be applied for studying such pathways and suggest that proteomics and metabolomics can produce complementary findings to transcriptomic studies.
Highlights
Baculoviruses are enveloped viruses that contain a circular double stranded DNA genome (80–180 kb) [1]
This review shows that most of our understanding about insect host responses to baculovirus infections so far has been derived from microarray and RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) studies in the last five years
This review identifies possible conservative changes and knowledge gaps relating to host-baculovirus interactions, and proposes the further use of transcriptomics to investigate genome-scale interactions, with more focus on host responses
Summary
Baculoviruses are enveloped viruses that contain a circular double stranded DNA genome (80–180 kb) [1]. This review shows that most of our understanding about insect host responses to baculovirus infections so far has been derived from microarray and RNA-seq studies in the last five years. These studies, investigated different host-baculovirus systems, under different infection conditions, and identified different sets of regulated genes. The review briefly discusses challenges and opportunities for genetic engineering of host genes, determined by transcriptomic studies, to moderate the infection process in order to increase product yields using insect cell technology, which is important for commercialization of the technology. Host Genes/Pathways that Baculoviruses Require for Successful Infection Processes in Insect Cells
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