Ecdysteroid Stimulates Virus Transmission in Larvae Infected with Bombyx mori Nucleopolyhedrovirus

Most baculoviruses have an ecdysteroid UDP-glucosyltransferase (egt) gene, whose product inactivates ecdysteroid within the infected host. Bomhyx mori larvae infected with BmEGTZ, a mutant B. mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV) in which the egt gene has been inactivated, die more rapidly compared to larvae infected with wild-type BmNPV. In this study, the profile of hemolymph proteins, and progression of virus infection in BmEGTZ- and BmNPV-infected B. mori larvae, was analyzed by SDS-PAGE and histochemically. These analyses showed that virus-encoded and virus-induced proteins were expressed quicker in BmEGTZ-infected larvae than in BmNPV-infected larvae. This suggests that the decrease in time to death, following BmEGTZ infection, results from the stimulation of virus-specific protein expression. In order to examine the effect of ecdysteroid on virus transmission, the profile of hemolymph proteins, and progression of virus infection, were analyzed following an ecdysteroid injection of BmEGTZ- or BmNPV-infected larvae. In the BmNPV-infected larvae, ecdysteroid treatment had no apparent effect on hemolymph protein expression. This suggests that the injected ecdysteroid was inactivated by the BmNPV-expressed ecdysteroid UDP-glucosyltransferase. An Ecdysteroid injection into BmEGTZ-infected larvae increased the speed of virus-specific protein expression and virus transmission. These results suggest that ecdysteroid stimulates protein expression, which in tum results in the stimulation of virus transmission.