The antioxidant potential of silk protein sericin from the non-mulberry tropical tasar silkworm Antheraea mylitta cocoon has been assessed and compared with that of the mulberry silkworm, Bombyx mori. Skin fibroblast cell line (AH927) challenged with hydrogen peroxide served as the positive control for the experiment. Our results showed that the sericin obtained from tasar cocoons offers protec...

For mass production of human epidermal growth factor (hEGF), silkworm baculovirus expression vector system (BEVS) was adopted in this study. hEGF gene was in-frame fused with polyhedrin (Ph) gene under the control of Ph promoter and was used to co-transfect BmN cell with the modified Bombyx mori baculovirus DNA to obtained recombinant virus. The ELISA showed a maximum expression on day 4 in lar...

The most important pathogenic fungus of the silkworm, Bombyx mori L. (Lepidoptera: Bombycidae), is Beauveria bassiana (Balsamo-Crivelli ) Vuillemin (Hypocreales: Clavicipitaceae), which causes significant damage to sericulture production. Therefore, diagnosing fungal disease and developing new control measures are crucial to silk production. To better understand the responsive and interactive m...

Transgenic techniques offer a valuable tool for determining gene functions. Although various promoters are available for use in gene overexpression, gene knockdown, and identification of transgenic individuals, there is nevertheless a lack of versatile promoters for such studies, and this dearth acts as a bottleneck, especially with regard to nonmodel organisms. Here, we succeeded in identifyin...

The effect of temperature and humidity fluctuations on fecundity and fertility of the silkworm lines was investigated during autumn and spring by exposing 4 and 5 instar larvae of eleven inbred silkworm lines ( M101, M-103, M-104, M-107, Pak-1, Pak-2, Pak-3, Pak-4, PFI-1, PFI-2 and S-1) to 25±1°C, 30±1°C and 35±1°C in combination with 55, 65 and 75% relative humidity (RH) for 3hr daily. Tempera...

Silkworms (Tubifex sp) are a natural feed with high nutritional content and needed by fish, especially in the fry phase to support fish growth. Therefore, knowledge of food cultivation is success farming. Silkworm requires media organic content. Tofu pulp waste one that can be utilized for silkworm cultivation. The purpose this activity increase community skills utilizing tofu as medium provide...

Pigmentation during insect development is a primal adaptive requirement. In the silkworm, melanin is the primary component of larval pigments. The rate limiting substrate in melanin synthesis is tyrosine, which is converted from phenylalanine by the rate-limiting enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH). While the role of tyrosine, derived from phenylalanine, in the synthesis of fiber proteins ha...

To investigate the patterns of nucleotide diversity in domesticated silkworm, Bombyx mori L. (Lepidoptera: Bombycidae) and its wild relative, Chinese wild silkworm, Bombyx mandarina Moore, we sequenced nine nuclear genes. Neutrality test and coalescent simulation for these genes were performed to look at bottleneck intensity and selection signature; linkage disequilibrium (LD) within and betwee...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous non-coding genes that participate in post-transcription regulation by either degrading mRNA or blocking its translation. It is considered to be very important in regulating insect development and metamorphosis. We conducted a large-scale screening for miRNA genes in the silkworm Bombyx mori using sequence-by-synthesis (SBS) deep sequencing of mixed RNAs from eg...

Vps20-associated 1 (Vta1) positively regulates Vacuolar protein sorting 4 (Vps4) to disassemble endosomal sorting complex required for transport III (ESCRT-III) for repeated uses in multivesicular body (MVB) pathway, virus budding and other processes. Currently, these proteins have mainly been studied in yeast and mammalian cells, while identities of them in insects remain largely unknown. We p...