Baculovirus host-range

Baculoviruses are used as microbial insecticides, protein expression vectors, epitope display platforms, and most recently as vectors for gene therapy. Understanding the mechanisms that control baculovirus host-range and tissue tropisms are important for assessing their safety and for improving their properties for these biotechnology applications. In the past two decades some progress has been made and several baculovirus genes that influence host-range have been identified. Despite this progress, our understanding of the underlying mechanisms that restrict baculovirus host-range is still limited. Here we review what is currently known about baculovirus genes that influence virus host-range.