Simulated sunlight-UV sensitivity of engineered juvenile hormone esterase and scorpion toxin recombinants of the nuclear polyhedrosis virus of Autographa californica

There has been an effort over the last decade to enhance the effectiveness of wild-type baculoviruses using genetic engineering. Wild-type viruses are extremely sensitive to sunlight-ultraviolet, but, what about engineered, recombinant baculoviruses? We found that insertion of a foreign gene did not result in recombinant baculoviruses being more or less sensitive to simulated sunlight-UV than a parental wild-type baculovirus. The half-life of activity for all recombinants and the wild-type parental isolate we tested was within that previously reported for other baculoviruses.