The impact of PGF2? on total proteins, free amino acids and the amino transferases in the gonads of silkworm, Bombyx mori L. were investigated in the present experiment. The effect of PGF2? resulted in increase in the total protein and free amino acid contents in the gonads of silkworm larvae indicating improved structural and dynamic levels of organization. The enhanced activity levels of amin...

No special studies have been focused on the microRNA (miRNA) in the fifth-instar posterior silk gland of Bombyx mori. Here, using next-generation sequencing, we acquired 93.2 million processed reads from 10 small RNA libraries. In this paper, we tried to thoroughly describe how our dataset generated from deep sequencing which was recently published in BMC genomics. Results showed that our findi...

In Bombyx mori, polar body nuclei are observed until 9 h after egg lying, however, the fate of polar body nuclei remains unclear. To examine the fate of polar body nuclei, we employed a mutation of serosal cell pigmentation, pink-eyed white egg (pe). The heterozygous pe/+ (pe) females produced black serosal cells in white eggs, while pe/pe females did not produce black serosal cells in white eg...

The release process of phenol blue from a dibutyrylchitin microsphere, prepared with chitin from a silkworm, into an aqueous solution was kinetically analyzed by single microparticle injection/manipulation and absorption microspectroscopy. The distribution ratio and the release rate of phenol blue in the single microsphere/water system were significantly influenced by the pH of the solution. Th...

Cecropins constitute one of the largest and most potent immune protein families found in insect species with diversified numbers and features. In view of the large number of cecropin proteins existing with much sequence variations among them, an overview of the multigene cecropin family in silkworm Bombyx mori was attempted in this study. Cecropin encodes an inducible 64 residue anti-bacterial ...

The silkworm (Bombyx mori) is an economically-important insect that can secrete silk. Carboxypeptidases have been found in various metazoan species and play important roles in physiological and biochemical reactions. Here, we analyzed the silkworm genome database and characterized 48 carboxypeptidases, including 34 metal carboxypeptidases (BmMCP1-BmMCP34) and 14 serine carboxypeptidases (BmSCP1...

Establishment of efficient genome editing tools is essential for fundamental research, genetic engineering, and gene therapy. Successful construction and application of transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) in several organisms herald an exciting new era for genome editing. We describe the production of two active TALENs and their successful application in the targeted mutage...