Filamentous actin is required for lepidopteran nucleopolyhedrovirus progeny production

Autographa californica M nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV) is the prototypical member of the Nucleopolyhedrosis genus of the Baculoviridae, a family of large, double-stranded DNA viruses that are highly diverse. Nucleocapsid morphogenesis of AcMNPV and others in the Nucleopolyhedrovirus genus takes place within the nuclei of infected host cells. Previously, we showed that filamentous actin (F-actin) is essential for this process to occur in AcMNPV-infected cells, an unprecedented finding for a DNA virus that replicates within the nucleus, Because of the fundamental importance of this requirement to our understanding of virus-host interactions, and because of the diversity of viruses included within the Nucleopolyhedrovirus genus, we were compelled to determine whether the replication of other nucleopolyhedroviruses was also F-actin dependent. We report here that progeny virus production of six other lepidopteran nucleopolyhedroviruses, representing both phylogenetic groups I and II within the genus, is also F-actin dependent. The six viruses studied (Spodoptera frugiperda MNPV, Bombyx mori NPV, Orgyia pseudotsugata MNPV, Lymantria dispar MNPV, Anticarsia gemmatalis MNPV and Helicoverpa tea SNPV) were unable to produce progeny in the presence of either cytochalasin D or latrunculin A, two actin-binding agents that interfere with F-actin-dependent processes but differ in their modes of action. F-actin-dependent progeny morphogenesis, therefore, appears to be a characteristic common among viruses in this genus that have lepidopteran hosts.