Entomologists have long known that a group of insect viruses known as nucleopolyhedroviruses induce the larvae of moths to migrate to the top of plants before they die—a behavior which is thought to aid the virus’s transmission by enhancing its spread over the foliage and increasing the chances a new host will encounter it.
Exactly how these viruses drive behavioral change isn’t well understood. But a study published March 8 in Molecular Ecology reports that a nucleopolyhedrovirus (NPV) infecting cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera) caterpillars cranks up the expression of genes involved in the larvae’s visual system—specifically, ones involved in perceiving light.
Robert Poulin, an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Otago in New Zealand who did not participate in the work, praises the study as one of the few to have looked at the mechanisms behind parasitic behavior manipulation “in great detail.”
NPVs belong to a broader group of viruses ...
