History of Baculovirues

From Baculoviruses

• Earliest written account:
  • Hundreds of years ago in Chinese silkworms.
  • Baculovirus not very well understood, but changes in silkworms were observed.

• Field Pioneers
  • Emilio Cornalia (1824 – 1882) of Italy
  • Angelo Maestri (1806 – 1889) of Italy

• • • Independently published polyheral bodies in infected silkworm insect tissues using optical microscopy

• • • Neither knew what baculoviruses were, but knew that there was a common polyhedral in diseased silkworms.

• • • First to associate polyhedra with infected silkworms

• Fischer
  • Coined the name polyhedra for NPVs in 1906

• Goldschmidt
  • Began to culure insect cells in 1915

• Trager
  • Explored Baculovirus infection in insect cell culture in 1935

• Bergold
  • 1943-1947
  • Purified baculovirus using ultracentrifugation
  • Proposed Baculovirus structure and composition
  • Proved rod shaped virions infected insects