Analysis of defense mechanism against DNA viruses in the silkworm

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24380036
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Applied entomology
• Research Institution: National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences
• Principal Investigator: TANAKA Hiromitsu 独立行政法人農業生物資源研究所, 昆虫微生物機能研究ユニット, ユニット長 (30391577)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): TSUBOTA Takuya 独立行政法人農業生物資源研究所, 遺伝子組換えカイコ研究開発ユニット, 任期付研究員 (00612772)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: カイコ / 核多角病ウイルス / テトラスパニン / インテグリン / Etsファミリータンパク質 / 昆虫免疫

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, we analyzed the suppression mechanism of DNA viral propagation in response to DNA viral infection using a silkworm cell line and silkworm nucleopolyhedroviruses (BmNPV). We found that two predicted membrane proteins, tetraspanin and integrin, both of which genes are up-regulated in response to BmNPV infection, were involved in suppression of BmNPV propagation in the cells. We further demonstrated that tetraspanin regulated BmEts-dependent repression of expression of the viral immediate early gene. We believe that these findings contribute to elucidation of the mechanisms of insect immunity against DNA viruses.

Free Research Field

昆虫免疫学