The therapeutic effect of dye compounds with antibacterial activity was evaluated in a silkworm model of Staphylococcus aureus infection. Among 13 chromogenic agents that show antibacterial activity against S. aureus (MIC = 0.02 to 19 μg/mL), rifampicin had a therapeutic effect. The ED(50) value in the silkworm model was consistent with that in a murine model. Other 12 dyes did not increase sur...

Background: ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters are transmembrane proteins that utilize the energy of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) binding and hydrolysis to transport various substrates across extra and intracellular membranes, including metabolic products, lipids and sterols, and drugs. They play important roles in various processes of life, especially in drug resistance, metabolism and de...

To develop feline and canine interferons as medicine for companion animal, silkworm-baculovirus expression system was established as a manufacturing technology. Thus produced interferons were successfully cleared for a sale in commercial market. For expression of feline interferon in the silkworm, recombinant Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV) was constructed carrying feline interferon cD...

The silk industry was historically the most important industrial sector from Trás-os-Montes, with no competition until the 19 century. For centuries, it was the economic activity most open to the outside and the first to yield to the new capitalist mentality. It was, undoubtedly, the productive activity that contributed most to the national and international acknowledgment of the region and its...

The effect of temperature on the voltinism of the silkworm, Bombyx rnori, was discovered by Watanabe (1918) over 45 years ago. This followed the rinding of the important role of photoperiod during the incubation period of silkworm eggs (Kogure, 1933). In brief, whether diapause or non-diapause eggs are laid depends on temperature and light experienced by the mother during her embryonic life. In...

Host-pathogen interactions are complex relationships, and a central challenge is to reveal the interactions between pathogens and their hosts. Bacillus bombysepticus (Bb) which can produces spores and parasporal crystals was firstly separated from the corpses of the infected silkworms (Bombyx mori). Bb naturally infects the silkworm can cause an acute fuliginosa septicaemia and kill the silkwor...

The silkworm, Bombyx mori L. (Lepidoptera: Bombycidae), an oligophagous insect that mainly feeds on mulberry leaves, is susceptible to entomopathogen infection when reared with tricuspid cudrania leaves. A total of 56 dominant bacterial strains, classified into 12 phylotypes based on bacteriological properties and analysis of 16S rRNA genes, were isolated from the intestine of the fourth and fi...