Inhibition of BmNPV replication in silkworm cells using inducible and regulated artificial microRNA precursors targeting the essential viral gene lef-11

•We constructed two novel silkworm miRNA-based RAN interference cassettes.•Mature amiRNAs efficiently silenced viral lef-11 gene and inhibited BmNPV proliferation.•Overexpression of mature amiRNAs may induce acute cellular toxicity.•A novel inducible and regulated amiRNA cassette was constructed.

Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV) is a major silkworm pathogen, causing substantial economic losses to the sericulture industry annually. We demonstrate a novel anti-BmNPV system expressing mature artificial microRNAs (amiRNAs) targeting the viral lef-11 gene. The mature amiRNAs inhibited the lef-11 gene in silkworm BmN-SWU1 cells. Antiviral assays demonstrated that mature amiRNAs silenced the gene and inhibited BmNPV proliferation efficiently. As constitutive overexpression of mature amiRNAs may induce acute cellular toxicity, we further developed a novel virus-induced amiRNA expression system. The amiRNA cassette is regulated by a baculovirus-induced fusion promoter. This baculovirus-induced RNA interference system is strictly regulated by virus infection, which functions in a negative feedback loop to activate the expression of mature amiRNAs against lef-11 and subsequently control inhibition of BmNPV replication. Our study advances the use of a regulatable amiRNA cassette as a safe and effective tool for research of basic insect biology and antiviral application.