p13 from group II baculoviruses is a killing-associated gene

p13 gene was first described in Leucania separata multinuclearpolyhedrosis virus (Ls-p13) several years ago, but the functionof P13 protein has not been experimentally investigated todate. In this article, we indicated that the expression of p13from Heliothis armigera single nucleocapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus(Ha-p13) was regulated by both early and late promoter.Luciferase assay demonstrated that the activity of Ha-p13promoter with hr4 enhancer was more than 100 times inheterologous Sf9 cells than that in nature host Hz-AM1 cells.Both Ls-P13 and Ha-P13 are transmembrane proteins. Confocalmicroscopic analysis showed that both mainly located in thecytoplasm membrane at 48 h. Results of RNA interferenceindicated that Ha-p13 was a killing-associated gene for hostinsects H. armigera. The AcMNPV acquired the mentionedkilling activity and markedly accelerate the killing rate whenexpressing Ls-p13. In conclusion, p13 is a killing associatedgene in both homologous and heterologous nucleopolyhedrovirus.