Functional analysis of FP25K of Helicoverpa armigera single nucleocapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus

The fp25k gene of Helicoverpa armigera single nucleocapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus (HearNPV) was studied. HearNPV fp25k gene transcription was found starting from about 18 h post-infection, and protein could be detected from the same time with antiserum against FP25K. To study the function of HearNPV fp25k, a recombinant HearNPV (HaBacWD11) with an enhanced green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene replacing the fp25k was constructed using HaBacHZ8, a bacmid of HearNPV that lacks the polyhedrin gene. Growth curve analysis showed that HaBacWD11 produced higher titres of budded viruses (BVs) than its wild-type counterpart HaBacHZ8-GFP. Electron microscopic analysis indicated that at the late stage of infection, the number of intranuclear enveloped nucleocapsids in HaBacWD11-infected cells was much less than that of HaBacHZ8-GFP. A rescue recombinant virus HaBacWD14 was constructed by reintroducing fp25k gene into HaBacWD11. The growth curve and electron microscopic analysis of the rescued recombinant confirmed that the increase of BV yield and the decrease of the virion production in infected cells were the result of fp25k deletion. The expression of membrane fusion protein (Ha133) and ODV-E66 were studied using the FP25K mutants HaBacWD11 and HaBacHZ8-GFP. Unlike FP25K mutants in Autographa californica multicapsid NPV (AcMNPV), which caused an increase in the expression of membrane fusion protein GP64 and a decrease of ODV-E66, no obvious changes at the expression level of Ha133 and ODV-E66 were observed in HearNPV FP25K mutant.

Characterization and phylogenetic analysis of the chitinase gene from the Helicoverpa armigera single nucleocapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus

A putative chitinase gene was identified within the fragment EcoRI-K of the Helicoverpa armigera single-nucleocapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus (HearNPV, also called HaSNPIV) genome. The open reading frame (ORF) contains 1713 nucleotides (nt) and encodes a protein of 570 amino acids (aa) with a predicted molecular weight of 63.6 kDa. Transcription started at about 18 h post infection (p.i.) and the protein was first detected at 20 h p.i. The times of transcription and expression are characteristic of a late baculovirus gene. 5' and 3' RACE indicated that transcription was initiated from the adenine residue located at -246 nt upstream from the ATG start site and the poly (A) tail was added at 267 nt downstream from the stop codon. This is the first report on the molecular characterization of a chitinase from a single nucleocapsid NPV. The phylogeny of baculoviral chitinase genes were extensively examined in comparison with chitinases derived from bacteria, fungi, nematode, actinomycetes, viruses, insects and mammals. Neighbor-joining and most parsimony analyses showed that the baculoviral chitinases were clustered exclusively within gamma-proteobacteria. Our results strongly suggest that baculoviruses acquired their chitinase genes from bacteria. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

柞蚕核型多角体病毒B-ORF6L、ptp、lef-12基因克隆及表达

本研究克隆了柞蚕核型多角体病毒（Antheraea pernyi nucleopolyhedrovirus，ApNPV）基因组pstⅠ-B、pstⅠ-C、pstⅠ-J三个片段，测序分析了pstⅠ-B、pstⅠ-C片段全序列及pstⅠ-J片段一端序列。ApNPV pstⅠ-C片段长6663 bp，包括9个完整ORF及2个不完整ORF；ApNPV pstⅠ-B片段长7406 bp，包括5个完整ORF及2个不完整ORF。ApNPV pstⅠ-J片段末端测定的954 bp序列包括lef-12完整序列及p47和gta部分序列。本研究共鉴定21个ApNPV ORF序列，其中20个属首次报道，占ApNPV已报道基因数的50％。编码ORF同源性分析及克隆片断ORF组成、基因排列顺序分析表明ApNPV与鳞翅目NPV第Ⅰ类群中的OpMNPV、CfMNPV、CfDefNPV、EppoNPV关系较近。 本研究克隆了ApNPV B-ORF6L、ptp-1、ptp-2及lef-12 四个基因，并对这四个基因在柞蚕蛹体内的表达进行了转录分析，结果表明：ApNPV ptp-1、lef-12是早期基因，B-ORF6L、ptp-2是晚期基因。本研究将ApNPV B-ORF6L、ptp-2亚克隆至原核表达载体，并在大肠杆菌中获得高效表达。SDS-PAGE及Western blot分析表明：PTP-2原核表达分子量与预测分子量相符，B-ORF6L融合表达分子量较预测的分子量偏大。以原核表达的B-ORF6L、PTP-2蛋白作为抗原，成功制作了B-ORF6L和PTP-2蛋白兔多克隆抗血清。ApNPV蛋白组分印迹分析表明：B-ORF6L参与包涵体膜及ODV结构组成，是ApNPV结构蛋白；PTP-2不参病毒结构组成。 分子系统发育分析表明，杆状病毒分为4个大的类群，ApNPV属于鳞翅目NPV第Ⅰ类群，与OpMNPV、CfMNPV、CfDefNPV、EppoNPV关系较近，与AcMNPV、RoMNPV、BmNPV关系稍远。

Electrooxidation of COad intermediated from methanol oxidation on polycrystalline Pt electrode

The poisonous intermediate of methanol oxidation on a Pt electrode was validated to be COad by electrochemical method. An approximate treatment to bimolecular elementary reactions on an electrode was advanced and then was applied to the stripping normal pulse voltammetry (NPV) for complex multistep multielectron transfer processes on plane electrodes to study the kinetics of completely irreversible process Of COad oxidation to CO2. The kinetic parameters for this process, such as standard rate constant (0) and anodic transfer coefficient (alpha) for this irreversible heterogeneous electron-transfer process at electrode/solution interface and apparent diffusion coefficient (D-app) for charge-transfer process within the monolayer of COad on electrode surface, were obtained with stripping NPV method. The effect of the approximate treatment on the kinetic parameters was also analyzed.