Abstract
The oak lappet moth, Trabala vishnou gigantina is a forest insect pest that damages broad-leaf trees severely. Trabala vishnou gigantina nucleopolyhedrovirus (TrviNPV) has been isolated from a naturally infected T. vishnou gigantina larva and investigated for its biology and the potential to be a biological control agent against its insect host. TrviNPV was characterized by electron microscope of occlusion bodies (OBs), genomic sequencing and field control efficacy. TrviNPV OBs exhibited an irregular polyhedral shape varying in size from 0.99 to 3.99 μm with multiple nucleocapsids per virion. The genome of this virus was 165 657 bp in length with 40.33% GC content and encoded 146 putative ORFs including the 38 baculovirus core genes. TrviNPV is a group II alphabaculovirus that encodes F protein and lacks the gp64 gene specific to group I alphabaculoviruses. Phylogeny and Kimura-2 parameter analysis revealed TrviNPV to be a novel species and closest to ArdiNPV, EupsNPV and OrleNPV. Bioassays and field trials in a shrubland revealed that TrviNPV was virulent and effective to control T. vishnou gigantina in arid semi-desert region. This work firstly reported the whole genome of TrviNPV as well as its biological characters for a possibility to develop this virus as bio-pesticide in the future.
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