The densovirus of Periplaneta fuliginosa (PfDNV) as an insect vector for persistent foreign gene expression in vivo.

An infectious clone of the Periplaneta fuliginosa densovirus (PfDNV) has been constructed and the PfDNV genome can rescue from the plasmid and replicate as the wild-type virus in nymphs of P. fuliginosa. To investigate the ability of the cloned PfDNV genome to be used as a stable and persistent expression vector, we constructed seven recombinant plasmids in which the GFP reporter gene was inserted into the genome of PfDNV. When these recombinant constructs were transfected into hosts, the GFP was expressed efficiently in every clone. Southern blot analysis revealed that recombinant plasmids had integrated into host genome. Infectious recombinant virions could be produced from plasmids in which the GFP gene was downstream of and in frame with the NS3 and NS1 coding regions. These results indicate that PfDNV genome can be used as an insect vector for the transfer and persistent expression of an exogenous gene.