Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV) is a severe pathogen for the domestic silkworm, Bombyx mori. BmNPV harbors over 140 protein-coding genes in its 128.4 kilobase pair-long double-stranded genome. However, many BmNPV genes are still uncharacterized. Here we investigated the role of BmNPV Bm96 in both B. mori cultured cells and larvae. We found that Bm96 is mainly expressed at the late stage of infection and accumulation of Bm96 protein peaks at 24 h post infection (hpi) and declines gradually at 48 hpi in B. mori cultured cells. Compared with the wild-type viruses, Bm96-deletion viruses exhibited higher viral propagation and fast-killing phenotype in B. mori larvae. These results strongly suggest that Bm96 negatively regulates the propagation of BmNPV in B. mori larvae. Furthermore, we observed that larvae infected with Bm96-deletion viruses showed lower locomotory activity at the late stage of infection compared with those infected with the wild-type viruses.
Keywords: Baculovirus; Bm96; Bombyx mori; Enhanced locomotory activity; Killing speed.
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