We used the nuclear polyhedrosis virus (LdNPV) of the gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar (Lepidoptera: Lymantriidae), to test one of the basic assumptions of most models of disease dynamics, that the rate of horizontal transmission is directly proportional to the product of the densities of healthy larvae and virus. To do this we made measurements of virus transmission, using small-scale experiments ...

Enhancins are metalloproteinases, first identified in granuloviruses, that can enhance nucleopolyhedrovirus (NPV) potency. We had previously identified two enhancin genes (E1 and E2) in the Lymantria dispar multinucleocapsid NPV (LdMNPV) and showed that both were functional. For this study, we have extended our analysis of LdMNPV enhancin genes through an immunocytochemical analysis of E1 and E...

g m w c s e e p i During Lymantria dispar multinucleocapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus (LdMNPV) replication in cell culture, few-polyhedra (FP) mutants arise at a high frequency and become predominant after only a few serial passages. The formation of LdMNPV FP mutants was an impediment to successful production of polyhedra in cell culture bioreactors. We have isolated and characterized a strain of L...

Ld652Y cells derived from the gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar, were infected with seven different nucleopolyhedroviruses (NPVs) including those from Autographa californica, Bombyx mori (BmNPV), Hyphantria cunea (HycuNPV), Spodoptera exigua (SeMNPV), L. dispar, Orgyia pseudotsugata (OpMNPV) and Spodoptera litura (SpltMNPV). The results showed that Ld652Y cells infected with BmNPV, HycuNPV, SeMNPV, ...

Disturbance regimes within temperate forests can significantly impact carbon cycling. Additionally, projected climate change in combination with multiple, interacting disturbance effects may disrupt the capacity of forests to act as carbon sinks at large spatial and temporal scales. We used a spatially explicit forest succession and disturbance model, LANDIS-II, to model the effects of climate ...