| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 昆蟲學研究所 === 104 === Baculoviruses are insect-specific DNA viruses with restricted host range, which serve as viral vectors for bioindustry applications such as foreign gene expression, vaccine production, and pest control. As an example, Autographa californica nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV), a commercially available and widely used baculovirus prototype, can infect 39 species in 13 families. Another example would be Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV), a major pathogen of silkworms which has developed high host specificity to Bombyx mori. Interestingly, on a genomic level, the AcMNPV and BmNPV are highly homologous, but they share no overlapping host range. These two similar viruses have extremely different infection outcomes in Bombyx mori. We theorize that the determination of host specificity may depend on virus-host interactions, and that several genes may be involved in determining host specificity. Therefore, we used next-generation sequencing (NGS) to analyze transcriptome responses of hosts to these viruses. A transcriptome library was constructed, annotated, and grouped after sequence assembly. A comparison of gene expressions shows several significant differences in the gene expression profiles of BmNPV and AcMNPV, especially in cases where genes involved in immune responses were verified by RNA interference. In addition, studies have shown that small RNA plays a role in virus-host interaction, and further determines host specificity. Therefore, we screened microRNA induced by AcMNPV infection, and then combined NGS data from cellular gens to predict possible regulation networks. The manipulation of virus-host specificity could provide a breakthrough for the application of baculovirus in protein expression systems and in the development of bio-control agents.
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