Virus with a Multipartite Superhelical DNA Genome from the Ichneumonid Parasitoid Campoletis sonorensis

J Virol. 1982 September; 43(3): 859–870.

PMCID: PMC256196

Virus with a Multipartite Superhelical DNA Genome from the Ichneumonid Parasitoid Campoletis sonorensis

Peter J. Krell,^† Max D. Summers,^‡ and S. Bradleigh Vinson

Department of Entomology, Texas A & M University and Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, College Station, Texas 77843

^† Present address: Department of Microbiology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1, Canada.

^‡ Author to whom reprint requests should be sent.

This article has been cited by other articles in PMC.

Abstract

Virus was isolated from the lumen of the calyx region of ovaries in the parasitoid wasp Campoletis sonorensis (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae), and the nature of the viral DNA was analyzed. DNA purified from a homogeneous band of virus contained double-stranded superhelical molecules which were polydisperse in molecular weight. At least 25 different covalently closed circles were present, ranging in molecular weight from 4.0 × 10⁶ to 13.6 × 10⁶. The virus DNA was analyzed with restriction enzymes, and the nature of the genetic complexity was evaluated by Southern blot hybridization of native superhelical and relaxed circular virus DNA and of SalI- and HindIII-digested DNA. The data suggest that most of the variously sized covalently closed DNAs were composed primarily of nonhomologous sequences. The different size classes of covalently closed viral DNAs did not appear to exist in equimolar concentrations. However, there was no evidence from observation of virus particles in the electron microscope or from virus fractionation experiments that a mixture of viruses was present in the calyx fluid. The results from this study suggest' that the virus isolated from C. sonorensis, like those isolated from other endoparasitic hymenoptera, may belong to a new class of DNA viruses in which the genome is multipartite, with each DNA existing as a superhelical molecule.

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