Structure prediction of the 5' non-translated region (NTR) of four iflavirus RNAs revealed two types of potential internal ribosome entry site (IRES), which are discriminated by size and level of complexity, in this group of viruses. In contrast to the intergenic IRES of dicistroviruses, the potential 5' IRES structures of iflaviruses do not have pseudoknots. To test the activity of one of thes...

The midgut pH of gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar) larvae was significantly lower when larvae were fed acidic foliage. At 30 min after the start of a feeding bout, larvae feeding on bigtooth aspen (foliage pH = 6.04) had average midgut pH levels of 10.16, while larvae feeding on red oak foliage (foliage pH = 3.84) had average midgut pH levels of 9.36. Midgut pH was also significantly reduced when l...

The pheromone-binding proteins (PBPs), which exist at a high concentration in the sensillum lymph surrounding olfactory neurons, are proposed to be important in pheromone detection and discrimination in insects. Here, we present a systematic study of PBP-ligand interaction kinetics. We find that PBP2, from the gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar, associates and dissociates slowly with its biofunctiona...

Th e high effi ciency of baculovirus infection is partially explained by the ability of the virus to suppress host defense machinery connected with the apoptosis pathway. Members of the baculovirus gene family, inhibitors of apoptosis (vIAPs), have been shown to inhibit apoptosis in baculovirus-infected cells. Here we showed that treatment of the LdMNPV-infected 1st instar gypsy moth (Lymantria...

Juvenile hormone epoxide hydrolase (JHEH) is an important enzyme in the degradation pathways of juvenile hormone (JH) in insects. It converts JH to JH diol and hydrolyses JH acid to JH acid diol. JHEH titers regulate the entire process of insect development. In this study, full length ldjheh cDNA (2101 bp) was cloned from the Asian gypsy moth Lymantria dispar (L.; Lepidoptera: Lymantridae), and...