|
|
||||||||
Natural Environment Research Council, Institute of Virology, Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3SR, U.K.
Introduction. Baculoviruses have long intrigued both virologists and entomologists. The viruses can produce fatal disease in larvae of a number of insect species (including pests), particularly Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera. The lethality of the viruses has prompted many investigators to evaluate their potential as insecticides and, over the past decade, interest in baculoviruses and their mode of replication has increased greatly as this potential has become appreciated by a larger audience. Consequently, studies on fundamental aspects of baculovirus replication, especially the interaction with cells at both the cellular and molecular level, have increased. This has occurred not only to satisfy curiosity about an unusual group of viruses, but also to evaluate safety aspects of using viruses as biological control agents and to engineer methods of defining virus virulence and host range.
In many respects a review of the replication of baculoviruses is premature because very little is yet known about the way the viruses replicate.
Keywords: insect viruses, virus assembly, protein and nucleic acid synthesis
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
| INT J SYST EVOL MICROBIOL | MICROBIOLOGY | J GEN VIROL |
| J MED MICROBIOL | ALL SGM JOURNALS | |