The present invention provides a mechanism for studies of apoptosis in aquatic
organisms by infecting the aquatic organisms with aquabirnavirus, especially infectious
pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV). The infection of IPNV in an aquatic cell such
as a Chinook salmon embryo cell (CHSE-214) converts the cell into an apoptotic
cell. The present invention also provides a method for monitoring the morphological
changes during apoptosis by cloning EGFP (a variant type of GFP) to an aquatic
cell and monitoring the fluorescence using microscopic techniques. The intensity
of the fluorescence reflects the expression of EGFP in cells. Finally, the present
invention provides means for inducing or preventing/rescuing apoptosis in a host,
which include aquatic and vertebrate. The apoptosis can be induced by IPNV infection
or VP3 transfection that VP3 is a 32 kDa protein derived from IPNV segment A. The
apoptosis can be prevented or rescued by an antisense VP3 RNA or a zfMcl-1a protein.