Carlson Jonathan, Suchman Erica, Buchatsky Leonid
Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA.
Adv Virus Res. 2006;68:361-92. doi: 10.1016/S0065-3527(06)68010-X.
Mosquito densoviruses (MDV) are parvoviruses that replicate in the nuclei of mosquito cells and cause the characteristic nuclear hypertrophy (densonucleosis) that gives them their name. Several MDV that differ in pathogenicity both in vitro and in vivo have been isolated. MDV have a number of features that make them potentially attractive as biological control agents for mosquito-borne disease. They are nonenveloped and relatively stable in the environment. They are highly specific for mosquitoes and they infect and kill larvae in a dose dependent manner in the aqueous larval habitat. Infected larvae that survive to become adult mosquitoes exhibit a dose-dependent shortening of lifespan and many do not survive longer than the extrinsic incubation period for arboviruses. Thus they may have a significant impact on transmission of pathogens. Infected females can transmit the virus vertically by laying infected eggs in new oviposition sites. Studies on how MDV affect populations are relatively limited. Population cage studies suggest that they will persist and spread in populations and limited field studies have shown similar preimaginal mortality in wild populations to that seen in laboratory studies. The availability of infectious clones of MDV genomes allows the development of densovirus vectors for expressing genes of interest in mosquito cells and mosquitoes. Recently short hairpin RNA expression cassettes that induce RNA interference have been inserted into densovirus genomes. These expression cassettes should be useful for both research and disease-control applications.
蚊浓核病毒（MDV）是细小病毒，在蚊细胞的细胞核中复制，并引起特征性的核肥大（致密核症），这也是它们名称的由来。已经分离出几种在体外和体内致病性不同的MDV。MDV具有许多特性，使其作为蚊媒疾病的生物控制剂具有潜在吸引力。它们无包膜，在环境中相对稳定。它们对蚊子具有高度特异性，并且在水生幼虫栖息地中以剂量依赖的方式感染并杀死幼虫。存活至成年蚊子的受感染幼虫表现出剂量依赖性的寿命缩短，许多幼虫存活时间不超过虫媒病毒的外在潜伏期。因此，它们可能对病原体的传播产生重大影响。受感染的雌蚊可以通过在新的产卵地点产下受感染的卵来垂直传播病毒。关于MDV如何影响种群的研究相对有限。种群笼养研究表明，它们将在种群中持续存在并传播，有限的野外研究表明，野生种群中的幼虫前期死亡率与实验室研究中观察到的相似。MDV基因组感染性克隆的可用性使得能够开发浓核病毒载体，用于在蚊细胞和蚊子中表达感兴趣的基因。最近，诱导RNA干扰的短发夹RNA表达盒已被插入浓核病毒基因组中。这些表达盒对于研究和疾病控制应用都应该是有用的。
