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Updated: Feb 25, 2026

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Published on: July 11, 2013
Per os infectivity factors: a complicated and evolutionarily conserved entry machinery of baculovirus
Xi Wang1,2, Xiaoping Liu1,2, George Alliwa Makalliwa1,2
1State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, China.
Abstract:
Baculoviruses are a family of arthropod-specific large DNA viruses that infect insect species belonging to the orders Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera and Diptera. In nature, occlusion-derived viruses (ODVs) initiate baculovirus primary infection in the midgut epithelium of insect hosts, and this process is largely dependent on a number of ODV envelope proteins designated as per os infectivity factors (PIFs). Interestingly, PIF homologs are also present in other invertebrate large DNA viruses, which is indicative that per os infection is an ancient and phylogenetically conserved entry mechanism shared by these viruses. Here, we review the advances in the knowledge of the functions of individual PIFs and recent discoveries about the PIF complex, and discuss the evolutionary implications of PIF homologs in invertebrate DNA viruses. Furthermore, future research highlights on the per os infection mechanism are also prospected.
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