Abstract
Baculoviruses infecting Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) encodes an enzyme known as ecdysosteroid UDP-glycosyltransferase (EGT), which inactivates insect host ecdysosteroid hormones, thereby preventing molt and pupation and permitting a build-up of the viral population within the host. Baculovirus EGT shows evidence of homology to insect UDP-glycosyltransferases, and a phylogenetic analysis supported the closest relative of baculovirus EGT are the UGT33 and UGT34 families of lepidopteran UDP-glycosyltransferases. The phylogenetic analysis thus supported that baculovirus EGT arose by horizontal gene transfer of a UDP-glycosyltransferase from a lepidopteran host, an event that occurred 70 million years ago at the earliest but possibly much more recently. Three amino acid replacements unique to baculovirus EGTs and conserved in all available baculovirus sequences were identified in the N-terminal region of the molecule. Because of their conservation, these amino acids are candidates for playing an important functional role in baculovirus EGT function.
Highlights
Baculoviruses infecting Lepidoptera encodes an enzyme known as ecdysosteroid UDP-glycosyltransferase (EGT), which inactivates insect host ecdysosteroid hormones, thereby preventing molt and pupation and permitting a build-up of the viral population within the host
A phylogenetic analysis showed that certain inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) genes of baculoviruses infecting Lepidoptera are closely related to those of their hosts, supporting the hypothesis that these baculovirus genes have recently been transferred from their insect hosts (Hughes 2002b)
The egt gene, which encodes an enzyme known as ecdysosteroid UDP-glycosyltransferase (EGT), is another well-studied baculovirus gene that has homologs in cellular organisms (O’Reilly 1995, 1997)
Summary
Baculoviruses infecting Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) encodes an enzyme known as ecdysosteroid UDP-glycosyltransferase (EGT), which inactivates insect host ecdysosteroid hormones, thereby preventing molt and pupation and permitting a build-up of the viral population within the host. Hymenoptera; and the genus Deltabaculovirus infects members of the insect order Diptera (Jehle et al 2006) Like those of other dsDNA viruses, baculovirus genomes include several genes with homology to those of cellular organisms (Hughes 2002b; Hughes and Friedman 2003). The egt gene, which encodes an enzyme known as ecdysosteroid UDP-glycosyltransferase (EGT), is another well-studied baculovirus gene that has homologs in cellular organisms (O’Reilly 1995, 1997) This gene is found in many viruses belonging to the two baculovirus genera that infect Lepidoptera, Alphabaculovirus and Betabaculovirus (O’Reilly 1995, 1997; Ahn et al 2012). Baculovirus EGT has numerous additional effects on the host (Cory et al 2004), including behavioral effects on the European gypsy moth Lymantria dispar, leading infected larvae to climb to the top of host trees before dying, thereby maximizing dispersal of virus particles (Hoover et al 2011)
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