Songsak RoekringTimothy W. FlegelPrida MalasitPattamaporn KittayapongMahidol UniversityFaculty of Medicine, Thammasat UniversityThailand National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology2018-08-202018-08-202006-07-26Developmental and Comparative Immunology. Vol.30, No.10 (2006), 878-8920145305X2-s2.0-33746255293https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/123456789/23006Research on cultivated shrimp suggests that they have the capability to tolerate viral pathogens in a highly specific manner by mechanisms currently unknown. The phenomenon is difficult to study in detail because they have a generation time of 1-2 yr and lack continuous cell lines. Thus, we developed a mosquito-densovirus model to examine whether similar phenomena occur in insects. Serial challenge of five generations with a stock densovirus (AThDNV) resulted in progressive survival increases from 15% to 58%. Prevalence of AThDNV infection in surviving mosquito larvae (confirmed by PCR, histology, in situ hybridization and transmission electron microscopy) was relatively high (e.g. 36% in F2) but they grew normally to establish each succeeding generation. At the end of five generations, comparison of deduced amino acid sequences from genome fragments revealed a significantly higher (p = 0.0 2) estimated prevalence of defective targets in the survivor virus population (29.7%±10.0 SD) than in the stored viral population (3.3%±5.8 SD). The results paralleled those reported for serially passaged C6/36 mosquito cell cultures infected with a densovirus. There, reduced infection rates are ascribed to the production of defective interfering particles (DIP). Thus, it is possible that the presence of prior AThDNV infections with a high level of DIP contributed to improved survival in our challenged F4 mosquito population. If so, it suggests that persistent viral infections in arthropods may serve in a specific, adaptive manner to reduce the incidence and severity of disease. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Mahidol UniversityBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular BiologyImmunology and MicrobiologyArticleSCOPUS10.1016/j.dci.2005.12.006