George Rohrmann

Emeritus Professor, Microbiology

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Office: ALS Bldg 1073C
Email: rohrmanng@orst.edu
Phone: (541) 737-1793
Links:
Departmental Web Page
Pub Med

EDUCATION:
Ph.D. 1970, University of Washington

KEYWORDS: Baculoviridae; Virus structure; Virus replication. Insect retroviruses

RESEARCH:
Baculoviruses are a group of occluded insect viruses that have received considerable attention because of their potential for application in insect control programs and their widespread use as expression vectors. They encode a unique RNA polymerase that expresses several late genes at some of the highest levels reported for eukaryotic systems. My research is currently focused on two main areas. These include the characterization the roles of viral and host gene products in viral replication. Most recently this has led to investigations on insect p53 and a viral sulfhydryl oxidase that interacts with p53. In addition, the role that the host DNA damage response plays in viral replication is being examined. The other area of research involves the characterization of a group of insect retroviruses that appear to have an evolutionary relationship with baculoviruses. This is based on the observation that the envelope protein of a major lineage of baculoviruses is related the env protein from a lineage of insect retroviruses called errantiviruses.