The genus Flavivirus, which contains approximately 70 single-stranded, positive-sense RNA viruses, represents a unique model for studying the evolution of vector-borne disease, as it includes viruses that are mosquito-borne, tick-borne or have no known vector. Both theoretical work and field studies suggest the existence of a large number of undiscovered flaviviruses. Recently, the first isolat...

Insects successfully occupy most environmental niches and this success depends on surviving a broad range of environmental stressors including temperature, desiccation, xenobiotic, osmotic and infection stress. Epithelial tissues play key roles as barriers between the external and internal environments and therefore maintain homeostasis and organismal tolerance to multiple stressors. As such, t...

Insect chromosomes provide wonderful model systems to unravel the mysteries of DNA replication. Data from studies of conventional replication of insect chromosomes are compatible with a mode of semidiscontinuous replication by a set of enzymes similar to those in mammals. Normally, replication initiates just once per S phase in each replicon. During various stages of insect development, however...

Lepidopteran cell lines derived from the gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar, have not been widely used in protein expression studies or systems because they are weakly adherent, have specific growth requirements and characteristics, and are generally difficult to transfect. Using lipid-mediated transfection of a reporter plasmid, we modify the standard method for transfection of L. dispar-derived emb...

Insect cell cultures are widely used in viral diagnosis and biotechnology, for the production of recombinant proteins, viral pesticides and vaccines as well as in basic research in genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, endocrinology and virology. Following KRP Singh's pioneering research in 1967, a large number of cell lines from diptera, hemiptera, and lepidopteran insects were establishe...

background: sequence variations in glycoproteins of influenza virus surface impel us to design new candidate vaccines yearly. ectodomain of influenza m2 protein is a surface and highly conserved protein. m2e in influenza vaccines may eliminate the need for changing vaccine formulation every year. objectives: in this study, a recombinant baculovirus containing m2e and cholera toxin subunit b fus...

0