Baculovirus infection can prevent the pupation of insects. Juvenile hormone (JH) plays a vital role in regulating insect molting and metamorphosis. However, the molecular mechanism of baculovirus preventing the pupation of larvae by regulating the Juvenile hormone (JH) pathway is still unclear. In this study, we found that the Mamestra brassicae multiple nucleopolyhedroviruses (MbMNPV) infection prolonged the larval stage of fourth instar Helicoverpa armigera (H. armigera) by 0.52 d and caused an increase in JH titer. To identify the genes that contribute to the JH increase in H. armigera-MbMNPV interaction, we analyzed mRNA expression profiles of the fat bodies of H. armigera infected by MbMNPV. A total of 3637 differentially expressed mRNAs (DE-mRNAs) were filtered out through RNA-seq analysis. These DE-mRNAs were mainly enriched in Spliceosome, Ribosome biogenesis in eukaryotes, Aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis, Mismatch repair, and RNA degradation signaling pathway, which are related to the virus infection. Real-time PCR was used to verify the RNA sequencing results. To find out which genes caused the increase in JH titer, we analyzed all the DE-mRNAs in the transcriptome and found that the JHE and JHEH genes, which were related to JH degradation pathway, were down-regulated. JHE and JHEH genes in the larvae of MbMNPV-infected group were significantly down-regulated compared with the control group by RT-qPCR. We further proved that the JH is degraded by JHE in H. armigera larvae by RNAi, ELISA, RT-qPCR and bioassay, while the hydrolysis of JH by JHEH in H. armigera larvae can almost be ignored. Knocking down of HaJHE promoted the expression of the JH receptor gene Met and the downstream gene Kr-h1, and the replication of MbMNPV. This study clarified that JH is mainly degraded by JHE in H. armigera larvae. The MbMNPV infection of H. armigera larvae leads to the increase of JH titer by inhibiting the expression of JHE. The increase in JH titer promotes the expression of the JH receptor gene Met and the downstream gene Kr-h1, which prevents the pupation of H. armigera, and promotes MbMNPV replication. This study provides new insights into H. armigera and MbMNPV interaction mechanisms.

A novel Gram-negative, orange-colored, rod-shaped, oxidase and catalase-positive, non-spore-forming bacterium, designated as zp-37^T, was isolated from the rhizosphere soil of Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud in Kashgar County, Xinjiang, China. The phylogenetic analysis, based on the 16S rRNA genes, revealed that strain zp-37^T belongs to the genus Halomonas. Growth of strain zp-37^T was observed at 10–43 °C, pH 6.0–11.0, and 0–20% NaCl (w/v). The principal fatty acids of strain zp-37^T were summed feature 8 (C_18:1ω7c and/or C_18:1ω6c, 55.67%) and summed feature 3 (C_16:1ω7c and/or C_16:1ω6c, 20.16%). The polar lipid profile contained diphosphatidylglycerol (DPG), phosphatidylglycerol (PG), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), unidentified phospholipids (UPL 1–3), unidentified aminophospholipids (UAPL 1–2), and unidentified lipid (UL). Its main respiratory quinone was ubiquinone Q-9 (100%). The genome of strain zp-37^T was 3,489,967 bp in size, containing two plasmids with lengths of 18,112 bp and 4364 bp, respectively. The genomic DNA G+C content of strain zp-37^T was 59.3%. By the genome annotation, various genes related to the function of saline-alkaline stress tolerance and plant growth promotion were predicted. The average nucleotide identity (ANI) and digital DNA–DNA hybridization (dDDH) values between strain zp-37^T and its five closely related strains were 72.64–75.59% and 19.70–20.40%, respectively, which were lower than the threshold for species delineation (ANI: 95–96%, dDDH: 70%). Based on the phylogenetic, phenotypic, and chemotaxonomic analyses and genomic comparisons, strain zp-37^T was suggested to represent a novel species within the genus Halomonas, for which the name Halomonas kashgarensis sp. nov. is proposed. The strain type was designated zp-37^T (=CGMCC 1.62213^T = JCM 37305^T).