Remziye Nalcacioglu
Karadeniz Technical University, Turkey
Title: Characterization of a granulovirus from the fall webworm, hyphantria cunea
Biography
Biography: Remziye Nalcacioglu
Abstract
A broad survey of the fall webworm, Hyphantria cunea (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae) populations in agricultural and forested areas in the central black sea region of Turkey led to the detection of granuloviruses (GVs). Thirty insect cadavers were collected from different locations, 8 of which contained GVs. All of them were determined to be Hyphantria cunea granulovirus (HycuGV) by tissue PCR and sequence analysis. A selected isolate (Hc1) was characterized and tested against third instar larvae of H. cunea. Electron microscopy confirmed typical GV morphology with ovoid granules of approximately 318-546 nm × 174-240 nm. Each granule contained a single rod-shaped virion with a mean size of 35-51 nm × 202-341 nm. The genome was estimated to be ~123 kb by restriction endonuclease analysis. Partial sequencing of the granulin ,late expression factor-8 (lef-8) and late expression factor-9 (lef-9) genes also confirmed the identity of the virus as HycuGV. A phylogenetic analysis based on these conserved genes, HycuGV-Hc1 grouped together with the previous HycuGV isolate (A5-1) and Estigmene acrea granulovirus (EsacGV) isolate from the same family. The LC50 of Hc1 isolate was 2.6×104 occlusion bodies (OBs/ml) against third instar H. cunea larvae. HycuGV-Hc1 caused 80.17% mortality with 109 OBs/ml in pot experiments performed in a greenhouse. This is the first study to describe a novel Turkish HycuGV-Hc1 isolate and preliminary data suggest the virus have a significant potential as an effective biopesticide for H. cunea control.