Development of Intranuclear Inclusions in Virus-diseased Cells of Lepidopterous Larvæ

Abstract

FOR some time now, Dr. K. M. Smith and I have been studying, in sections for the electron and light microscopes, the role of intranuclear nets which form in insect cells infected with nuclear polyhedral viruses¹, and we are accumulating more and more data indicating that the polyhedral and previrus materials may originate in these nets. One of the biggest difficulties has been the lack of adequate cytological techniques for critically recognizing and differentiating the various intranuclear particles, and their relations to each other. Recently, Mazia et al.² published a new cytochemical method for the study of proteins using bromophenol blue as the dye, and this method, together with appropriate pretreatments of Carnoy-fixed sections, has now been used along with other methods to study the intranuclear cytology of infected cells.