Isolation and characterization of virus from Malacosoma neustria (Lepidoptera:Lasiocampidae) and its potential use in microbial control

Isolation and Characterization of Virus from Malacosoma neustria (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae) and Its Potential Use in Microbial Control Malacosoma neustria (Lepidoptera; Lasiocampidae) is one of the important agricultural pests. Chemical pesticides utilized to control this pest have hazardous effect on the environment. Recent concern on the hazardous effect of chemical pesticides in the environment made scientists consider finding more effective and safer control agents. In this study, morphological, ultrastructural and molecular characterization, transmission and host spectrum of a viral pathogen of M. neustria were carried out for biological control. Viral infection was only observed in the populations of Malacosoma neustria collected in Gümüşhane. Morphological, ultrastructural and molecular studies showed that the virus is a nucleopoyhedrovirus. The dimension of polyhedra was 1.6410.52 urn. In cross-section of polyhedrae it was visible that virions contain 1 to 18 nucleocapsids per virion. The average size of particles was 240 x 35 nm. Restriction endonuclease analysis of the viral DNA by EcdRL, BamHL and HindBI enzymes and sequence analysis of polyhedrin gene showed that there is significant differences between this isolate and earlier isolates. The biossays carried out to determine the infectivity of the virus showed that it is very effective on the first-second instar larvae of M neustria. On the other hand, to detect host specificity, the isolated virus was tested against Gypsonoma dealbana, Cydia pomonella (Lep;Tortriciidae), Euproctis chrysorrhoea {Lep; Lymantriidae), Pieris brassicae (Lep; Pieridae), Yponomeuta malinellus {Lep; Yponomeutidae) and Hyphantria cunea (Lep; Arctiidae), This result indicated the host spectrum of MnNPV is narrow. Horizontal transmission of ManeMNPV is very high. The result of our study show that Turkish isolate of Malacosoma neustria nucleopoh/hedrovirus is very promissive for biological control of M. neustria. Key Words: Malacosoma neustria, Nucleopolyhedrovirus, Biological Control, Baculovirus VII