A) Donor plasmids used in this study. B) Viruses used in this study. The sequence of the complete genotype SfNIC-B is shown, where the right and left pif-2/pif-1 flanking regions are specified. First, a SfNIC-BΔpifs recombinant virus was constructed in which pif-2/pif-1 coding region was substituted by the LacZ operon. The primers used for the flanking regions amplifications are indicated below the figure. Recombinant viruses SfNIC-Bpif1 (rescue virus), SfNIC-Begt, in which the SeMNPV egt promoter would drive pif-1 transcription, and SfNIC-Bp10, in which the SeMNPV p10 promoter would drive pif-1 transcription, were constructed by homologous recombination between SfNIC-BΔpifs and donor plasmids pUC19.(pif1)pif1, pUC19.(egt)pif1 and pUC19.(p10)pif1 respectively. C) pif-2/pif-1 intergenic sequences from SfNIC-B, SfNIC-Bpif1, SfNIC-Begt and SfNIC-Bp10 viruses. The underlined portion in SfNIC-B containing the native pif-1 promoter was replaced by donor sequences.