Rice dwarf virus (RDV) replicates in and is transmitted by a leafhopper vector in a persistent-propagative manner. Previous cytopathologic and genetic data revealed that tubular structures, constructed by the nonstructural viral protein Pns10, contain viral particles and are directly involved in the intercellular spread of RDV among cultured leafhopper cells. Here, we demonstrated that RDV expl...

A cDNA encoding a novel, inwardly rectifying K+ (K+in) channel protein, SKT1, was cloned from potato (Solanum tuberosum L.). SKT1 is related to members of the AKT family of K+in channels previously identified in Arabidopsis thaliana and potato. Skt1 mRNA is most strongly expressed in leaf epidermal fragments and in roots. In electrophysiological, whole-cell, patch-clamp measurements performed o...

The culture of insect tissues in vitro offers considerable potential for studying many aspects of the pathogenic cycles of protozoan, bacterial, and viral agents which have an insect vector or reservoir . Studies directed toward this end have been limited in number since the culture of insect cells has, in itself, been a very difficult task (2, 8, 13) . Progress in this field was not too encour...

Three members of the δ-endotoxin group of toxins expressed by Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis, Cyt2Ba, Cry4Aa and Cry11A, were individually expressed in recombinant acrystalliferous B. thuringiensis strains for in vitro evaluation of their toxic activities against insect and mammalian cell lines. Both Cry4Aa and Cry11A toxins, activated with either trypsin or Spodoptera frugiperda gas...

Insect cells convert vitamin A into a number of retinoids that are evolutionarily conserved with those of mammalian cells. However, insect cells also produce additional natural retinoids. Namely, two retinoic acid peptides, N-trans-retinoylserine (1) and N-trans-retinoylalanine (2), have been isolated from a cell line of the common cabbage looper, Trichoplusia ni. These are the first examples o...

Confocal immunofluorescence microscopy was used to demonstrate that the Autographa californica nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV) chitinase was localized within the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) of virus-infected insect cells. This was consistent with removal of the signal peptide from the chitinase and an ER localization motif (KDEL) at the carboxyl end of the protein. Chitinase release from cells, a ...

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in laboratory experiments the toxicity of acetone was investigated against four species of stored-product insects. in empty-space trials, estimates of the lethal concentrations of acetone (lc, 72-h exposure) for 50% mortality against adults of the lesser grain borer, rhizopertha dominica (f.), red flour beetle, tribolium castaneum (herbst), rice weevil, si-tophilus oryzae (l.) and eggs of the a...