Protein-Gene Orthology in <i>Baculoviridae</i>: An Exhaustive Analysis to Redefine the Ancestrally Common Coding Sequences
Carolina Susana Cerrudo,
Lucas Federico Motta,
Franco Uriel Cuccovia Warlet,
Fernando Maku Lassalle,
Jorge Alejandro Simonin,
Mariano Nicolás Belaich
Affiliations
Carolina Susana Cerrudo
Laboratorio de Ingeniería Genética y Biología Celular y Molecular—Área Virosis de Insectos (LIGBCM-AVI), Instituto de Microbiología Básica y Aplicada, Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Roque Sáenz Peña 352, Bernal B1876BXD, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Lucas Federico Motta
Laboratorio de Ingeniería Genética y Biología Celular y Molecular—Área Virosis de Insectos (LIGBCM-AVI), Instituto de Microbiología Básica y Aplicada, Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Roque Sáenz Peña 352, Bernal B1876BXD, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Franco Uriel Cuccovia Warlet
Laboratorio de Ingeniería Genética y Biología Celular y Molecular—Área Virosis de Insectos (LIGBCM-AVI), Instituto de Microbiología Básica y Aplicada, Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Roque Sáenz Peña 352, Bernal B1876BXD, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Fernando Maku Lassalle
Laboratorio de Ingeniería Genética y Biología Celular y Molecular—Área Virosis de Insectos (LIGBCM-AVI), Instituto de Microbiología Básica y Aplicada, Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Roque Sáenz Peña 352, Bernal B1876BXD, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Jorge Alejandro Simonin
Laboratorio de Ingeniería Genética y Biología Celular y Molecular—Área Virosis de Insectos (LIGBCM-AVI), Instituto de Microbiología Básica y Aplicada, Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Roque Sáenz Peña 352, Bernal B1876BXD, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Mariano Nicolás Belaich
Laboratorio de Ingeniería Genética y Biología Celular y Molecular—Área Virosis de Insectos (LIGBCM-AVI), Instituto de Microbiología Básica y Aplicada, Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Roque Sáenz Peña 352, Bernal B1876BXD, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Baculoviruses are entomopathogens that carry large, double-stranded circular DNA genomes and infect insect larvae of Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera and Diptera, with applications in the biological control of agricultural pests, in the production of recombinant proteins and as viral vectors for various purposes in mammals. These viruses have a variable genetic composition that differs between species, with some sequences shared by all known members, and others that are lineage-specific or unique to isolates. Based on the analysis of nearly 300 sequenced genomes, a thorough bioinformatic investigation was conducted on all the baculoviral protein coding sequences, characterizing their orthology and phylogeny. This analysis confirmed the 38 protein coding sequences currently considered as core genes, while also identifying novel coding sequences as candidates to join this set. Accordingly, homology was found among all the major occlusion body proteins, thus proposing that the polyhedrin, granulin and CUN085 genes be considered as the 39th core gene of Baculoviridae.
