Baculoviruses and their recombinants as natural bioinsecticides

Michalik, Joanna

doi:0860-7796

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Baculoviruses and their recombinants as natural bioinsecticides Michalik, Joanna

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Baculoviruses and their recombinants as natural bioinsecticides

Michalik, Joanna

Committee on Biotechnology PAS ; Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry PAS

2000

biotechnology

Baculoviruses form a largest and most diverse group of insect-pathogenicviruses. They are safe for plants, vertebrates and - what is particularly important - for mammals and humans. It was established that these insect specificviruses are widespread in nature among economically important insect pestsand they may be applied in pest control programe. Numerous field trials demonstrated usefulness of baculoviruses as viral insecticides, however numerouschemical pesticides with broad spectrum and low cost of production made thenatural, viral insecticides economically unprofitable on the market. Only later,at the beginning of the 1980s and 1990s it became apparent that numerousagricultural, environmental and human health problems were a consequence ofa widespread use and accumulation of chemical pesticides in the environment.The necessity to develop biologically safe insecticides again focused the attention on the natural, very specific enemies of pest insect. Currently, the researchconcentrates on lowering the costs of growing baculoviruses on a large scale. Inaddition, attempts have been made to improve the virulence of pesticidal baculoviruses and to expand their host range. These experiments are now in progress in several laboratories. We may expect that in the future a baculovirus genome will be modified by way of changing or deleting its important parts ratherthan by the expression of additional genes coding for important regulators ofinsect metabolism.

Biotechnologia, vol.50, 3 (2000)-.