ABSTRACT
The topic of baculovirus specificity is both significant and pertinent at this juncture in time because of the potential use of baculoviruses as biological control agents aimed at reducing the usage of the more toxic chemical insecticides and for the expression of foreign genes. One of the major advantages in employing baculoviruses for biological control of insect pests is their specificity of action, proving harmless to beneficial insects and noninfectious to vertebrates. More than 600 baculoviruses have been isolated from arthropods, mainly insects, and some have been successfully used for the control of many lepidopteran, hymenopteran, and coleopteran pests. The multiple nuclear polyhedrosis viruses (MNPVs) are generally considered to have a wider host range than the SNPVs and other baculoviruses in the family Baculoviridae, as evidenced in both in vivo and in vitro systems. There are fewer reports of successful replication of SNPVs in cell cultures as compared with MNPVs.
